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National Educational Association 



Report of the Committee 



ON 



Industrial Education in Schools 
for Rural Communities 



National Council of Education 
July, 1905 



PUBLISHED BY THE ASSOCIATION 
1905 



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CONTENTS 



PAGE 

Report of the Committee .......... 5 

Introduction to the Report . , . . . . . . . . 5 

Historical Statement .......... 5 

Work of the Committee .......... 6 

Conclusions of the Committee ........ 7 

Argument for Industrial Education in Schools for Rural Communities . . 10 

The Field of Industrial Education in Rural Schools ..... 20 

Agriculture . . . ... . . . . . . .20 

Domestic Art, Economy, and Science ....... 22 

Manual Training . . . . . . . . . . .22 

Classes of Rural Schools . . . . . . . . . . 23 

Industrial Education in the One-Room Rural Schools ..... 24 

Agriculture ........... 24 

Instruction in Agriculture Should Not be Mandatory . . . . .25 

Manual Training and Domestic Art . . . . . . 26 

Nature Study — Remarks on . . . . . . .27 

Scheme for, in School Years 1 to 5 . . . . . . 28 

Earth and Sky . . . . . . . . . .30 

Animals .......... 1 30 

Plants ........... 30 

School Gardens ......... 31 

Illustrative Lessons on Earth and Sky . . . . . .31 

Illustrative Lessons on Animals ....... 35 

Illustrative Lessons on Plants . ... . '. . . .40 

Outline of Course in Agriculture for School Years 6 to 8 . . . . 44 

Industrial Education in the Consolidated School ...... 46 

Industrial Education in the Rural High School ...... 50 

How Make a Place for Industrial Education in Rural Schools . . 50 

Secondary Schools of Agriculture and Domestic Economy . . . . 52 

Preparation of Teachers of Industrial Subjects ....... 54 

District School Teachers ......... 55 

Consolidated School Teachers . . . . . . . > .56 

Rural High-School Teachers ........ 56 

Agricultural High-School Teachers . . . . . . . . 57 

Agencies Co-operating with Schools for Industrial Education . . . . 57 

Boys' and Girls' Clubs in Illinois . . . . . . . -57 

Agricultural College Extension Work in New York . . . . . 61 

Appendix A.— The Dunn County School of Agriculture and Domestic Economy 64 

Appendix B. — The Minnesota Agricultural High School .... 74 

Appendix C. — Articulated Industrial Courses for Consolidated Rural Schools, 

Agricultural High Schools, and Agricultural Colleges . . 83 
Appendix D. — Syllabus of Elementary Course in Agriculture Issued by United 

States Department of Agriculture ..... 89 

3 



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REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE 

ON 

INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION IN SCHOOLS FOR 
RURAL COMMUNITIES 



To the National Council of Education: 

The undersigned Committee on Industrial Education in Schools for Rural 
Communities, appointed at the meeting of the National Council of Educa- 
tion, Boston, Mass., July 9, 1903, has the honor to submit the. following report 
on the subject assigned for its consideration. 

The report proper is preceded by an introduction written by the chairman 
of the committee, giving a history of the formation of the committee, a brief 
statement of its plan of work, and its conclusions. The appendixes contain 
valuable matter related to the body of the report. 

L. D. Harvey, Chairman 



The Committee, 



L. H. Bailey, 
Alfred Bayliss, 
W. T. Carrington, 
W. M. Hays. 



INTRODUCTION 

To the National Council of Education: 

The undersigned, chairman of the Committee on Industrial Education 
in Schools for Rural Communities, appointed at the meeting of the National 
Council of Education, Boston, Mass., July 9, 1903, respectfully submits the 
following report: 

HISTORICAL STATEMENT 

At a meeting of the Board of Directors of the National Educational Association on 
July 6, 1903, the following resolution was unanimously adopted: 

Resolved, That the National Council of Education be requested by the Board of 
Directors of the National Educational Association to appoint a committee to report to that 
body, after such investigation as may seem desirable, conclusions as to what should be 
undertaken in the field of industrial education in schools for rural communities, and to 
recommend such an appropriation as may be necessary for carrying on the investigation 
and preparation of the report. 

The resolution was transmitted to the Council and referred to its Committee on 
Investigations and Appropriations. That committee reported to the Council, July 8, the 
following recommendation : 

With reference to the request of the Board of Directors that this committee report 
upon the expediency of undertaking an investigation in the field of industrial education 



NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION 



in schools for rural communities, we report that such an investigation seems to be urgently 
needed in view of the requests for information and advice that are reaching the school 
authorities in several states of the middle west. We recommend that the president of the 
Council be authorized to appoint a committee of five, consisting of active members of this 
Association, and of not more than one expert in agricultural education, who may or may 
not be a member of this Association, to undertake such an investigation and to report to 
the Council. We recommend that the Board of Directors be requested to appropriate 
$500, or so much thereof as may be necessary, to defray the cost of the investigation to 
be conducted by such committee. 

The report of the committee was unanimously adopted by the Council. The follow- 
ing resolution designed to carry into effect the recommendation of the committee was also 
unanimously adopted: 

Resolved, That the Board of Directors of the National Educational Association be 
requested to appropriate $500, or so much thereof as may be necessary, for a committee 
of five to investigate and report to the Council upon the subject of industrial education 
in schools for rural communities. 

At a meeting of the Board of Directors, July 9, 1903, the recommendation and request 
of the Council were presented and approved and the appropriation asked for was made. 

The President of the Council appointed the following committee July 9, 1903: 

Superintendent L. D. Harvey, Menomonie, Wis., Chairman. 

Professor L. H. Bailey, of Cornell University. 

State Superintendent Alfred Bayliss, of Illinois. 

State Superintendent W. T. Carrington, of Missouri. 

Professor Willet M. Hays, of the University of Minnesota. 

At the meeting of the Council in St. Louis, June 29, 1904, the Committee on Investi- 
gations and Appropriations submitted the following report and recommendation: 

At the meeting of the Association, held in Boston in 1903, a committee was appointed 
to make a report upon the subject of industrial education in schools for rural communities. 
The sum of $500 was appropriated for the use of this committee (see volume of Proceed- 
ings, pp. 36 and 37). It is expected that this committee will report at the next annual 
meeting of the Council. Of the original appropriation but $187.95 has been expended. 
We recommend that the unexpended balance of the appropriation made one year ago for 
the use of this committee — namely, $312.05 — be reappropriated for its use during the 
fiscal year beginning July 1, 1904, and that, in addition thereto, the further sum of $500 
be appropriated to enable this committee to complete its investigation and report. 

The report was adopted by the Council and a resolution passed requesting the Board 
of Directors to make the appropriation asked for. 

At a meeting of the Board of Directors, June, 1904, the appropriation recommended 
by the Council was made. 

WORK OF THE COMMITTEE 

The committee has held four meetings. The first meeting was held in December, 
1903, and was devoted to a consideration of the scope and character of the investigation 
and report to be made by the committee. 

As a basis for this consideration, the chairman had at an early date sent to each of 
the other members, a suggestive outline of the work to be undertaken. As a result of this 
meeting a working plan was agreed upon for the general guidance of the committee as a 
whole, and fields of preliminary investigation were assigned to sub-committees. 

It was agreed that the investigation should include the present status and the future 
possibilities of industrial work in the one-room rural schools, in the consolidated schools, 
in secondary schools such as now exist in rural communities, and also in secondary schools 
distinctively industrial in plan of organization, and that the scope and character of the 
report should be determined by the results of the investigations of the sub-committees. 

The second meeting was held in February, 1904, for the purpose of hearing reports 
of the progress made by the sub-committees in their several fields of investigation, and 
for the discussion of these reports by the entire committee. As a result of this meeting 



INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION IN RURAL SCHOOLS 7 

the general scope of the report was decided upon, together with the extent and character 
of the further investigation necessary for its preparation. 

Some readjustment in the assignment of work to sub-committees was made. Each 
sub-committee was charged with making such further investigation of the subject assigned 
to it as seemed necessary, and with the preparation of a preliminary report upon the sub- 
ject, to be submitted to the entire committee, at a subsequent meeting, for its considera- 
tion and for such modifications as might be decided upon. 

SUB-COMMITTEES AND WORK ASSIGNED EACH 

To L. H. Bailey and W. T. Carrington were assigned the subjects of nature study 
and instruction in the elements of agriculture in the one-room rural school. 

To Alfred Bayliss, manual training and domestic art in the same class of schools, 
and also, agencies and forces outside the school which may be utilized in the interests of 
industrial education in rural communities. 

To W. M. Hays, the consolidated school and the opportunities it may afford for 
industrial education. 

To L. D. Harvey and W. M. Hays, industrial education in secondary schools for 
rural communities, including the distinctively industrial schools, the rural high school 
as it now exists, and the work in the consolidated school where it extends beyond the 
elementary course. 

To L. D. Harvey, the why and what of industrial education for children in rural 
communities and the preparation of teachers to carry it on successfully. 

The third meeting was held in December, 1904, at which time the work of the sub- 
committees, so far as it had been prepared, was gone over by the whole committee, and 
such modifications made as seemed necessary. 

By formal action of the committee it was decided that each sub-committee should 
complete the work assigned to it as early as possible and forward it to the chairman, who 
was instructed to organize the reports of the sub-committees in form which the full report 
should finally take, and submit it for final action by the committee at a later date. 

The last meeting of the committee was held in March, 1905. At this meeting the 
entire work was gone over, and the report, in substantially the form in which it is pre- 
sented, was adopted as the report of the full committee. \ 

CONCLUSIONS OF THE COMMITTEE 

The general conclusions reached by the Committee may be summed up 
as follows: 

First, that in existing one-room district schools a limited amount of nature 
study and work in the elements of agriculture, and hand work for both boys 
and girls may be undertaken ; that in view of the quality of the teaching force 
available for these schools, the immaturity of the greater number of the pupils, 
the crowded condition of the program, and the lack of adequate supervision, 
but little can be expected in the way of industrial education in this class of 
schools; but where enthusiastic teachers qualified for the work, and pupils 
of sufficient maturity are brought together in the same school, something 
worth while may be accomplished, and that the effort for such accomplish- 
ment should certainly be made. 

Second, that in the consolidated school having at least four teachers, one 
of whom is prepared to teach the elements of agriculture and manual training, 
and another domestic science, very much more in the field of industrial educa- 



NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION 



tion may be attempted than in the one-room school, and with far better results. 
The committee believes this to be true, because in such schools teachers may 
be secured with far better qualifications than are possessed by most of the 
teachers in the one-room schools, and because in many cases pupils will 
remain for one or more years after completing the elementary school course, 
during which time the work in industrial education may be continued. In 
the consolidated school district, in most cases, new buildings must be erected. 
At small expense rooms may be provided for manual training and domestic 
science work, and a plot of land as a part of the school grounds set apart for 
illustrative and experimental work in agriculture. While the committee does 
not wish to enter into any argument in favor of consolidated schools for other 
reasons than for the facilities they may afford for industrial education, it 
wishes to endorse most heartily that portion of the report of the Committee 
of Twelve on Rural Schools concerning the advantages of the consolidated 
school. 

Third, that in the township or other distinctively rural high school, and 
in the village high school attended by a considerable number of pupils from 
the country, a modification of courses of study should be made which shall 
provide for the introduction of work, especially in the elements of agriculture 
and domestic science, and such further lines of industrial education as local 
conditions may make feasible. To make this work a success, teachers must 
be secured who have made special preparation for it. For such schools a 
text-book treating botany from an agricultural and economic standpoint is 
greatly needed. 

Fourth, that while the agricultural or industrial high school is found in 
but few localities, the character of the work already done in the existing 
schools of this class, the interest they awaken, and the hearty support they 
receive from the agricultural communities maintaining them, the history of 
these schools in foreign countries, the value of their work both for disciplinary 
and practical purposes, all combine to present the strongest reasons for the 
organization of schools of this type in large numbers, in agricultural com- 
munities. So thoroly is the committee convinced of the importance of indus- 
trial education in rural communities and what is essential for making this 
education effective, that in their opinion the establishment of secondary 
schools distinctively industrial in their character and of the type mentioned, 
is an absolute necessity for the proper development and organization of the 
rural school system. 

Fifth, that the agricultural colleges and experiment stations have already 
done much in the formulation of a body of knowledge essential in the field 
of industrial education, but that more yet remains to be done in putting this 
body of knowledge into available form for use in elementary-and secondary- 
schools; and that effort in this direction should be made a prominent feature 
in the work of the agricultural colleges of the country. 

Sixth, that the mastery of such parts of this rapidly developing body of 



INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION IN RURAL SCHOOLS 9 

knowledge as is within the capabilities of elementary and secondary school 
pupils, furnishes a mental training unsurpassed in extent and quality by the 
mastery of any other body of knowledge now regarded as essential in our 
common school courses and requiring an equal amount of time ; and that for 
utility value it is not equalled by any other body of knowledge at present 
acquired thru the expenditure of the same amount of time and effort 

Seventh, that for the improvement of educational conditions in rural 
communities, the people in those communities must be educated to see and 
appreciate the possibilities and value of industrial education; that the value 
of this kind of education in increasing the productive capacity of those being 
educated is the argument which appeals most strongly to the rural population. 
Therefore, in the beginnings of industrial education in any community, imme- 
diate, practical results that will appeal directly to the interests of the people 
who support and maintain the schools must be made prominent by those 
concerned with its development. 

Eighth, that the courses of study in rural schools should be framed with 
reference to meeting the needs of the children in those communities, and not 
with reference to preparing a small percentage of these children to enter 
higher schools whose courses of study are formulated, not to meet the needs 
of the great majority of those who attend them, but to prepare the remaining 
small minority to enter some still higher school. 

Ninth, that it is possible and desirable so to organize the rural-school 
system as to present an articulated series of schools from the elementary school 
to and including the agricultural college, in which the work at every stage 
shall be planned and administered with reference to the needs of the pupils 
at that stage without the elimination of any valuable feature in the present 
school system, and without abridging in any way the opportunities for advance- 
ment of such pupils as wish to enter other schools of secondary or higher 
grades. 

Tenth, that in industrial education, as in every other' form, the success 
of the work depends upon the quality of the teaching; and that therefore, 
since effort for industrial education in elementary and secondary schools is 
comparatively recent and teachers have not prepared themselves in this field, 
special opportunities and inducements must be offered to the teaching force 
to make the necessary preparation. 

Eleventh, that the organization of boys' and girls' clubs for definite indus- 
trial work outside the school, of clubs of farmers and of farmers' wives for 
the purpose of carrying on systematic reading courses in agriculture and 
household affairs, should be undertaken thru the co-operative effort of county 
and state superintendents and agricultural high schools and colleges, for the 
purpose of arousing a general interest in rural communities in the subject of 
industrial education. That the Patrons of Husbandry and farmers' insti- 
tutes are potent forces in creating a demand for the introduction of the indus- 
trial phase of education into the rural school system, and that their influence 



NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION 



can be made still more effective by the establishment of working relations 
between their offices and workers and the school authorities. 

Twelfth, that when teachers are unprepared to give instruction in the 
elements of agriculture and other phases of industrial effort, the work is likely 
to result in failure; that under existing conditions and under conditions 
likely to exist for a long time to come, comparatively few teachers in the country 
schools will be prepared for this work. Therefore, any law making mandatory 
the teaching of the elements of agriculture, manual training, or domestic 
science in the entire body of rural schools within a state is unwise, in that the 
lack of correct information and consequent faulty teaching on . the part of 
the great mass of country school teachers will tend to bring the whole subject 
into disrepute and cause a reaction which will postpone the proper develop- 
ment of industrial education. But while the committee advises against mak- 
ing mandatory the teaching of these subjects, it advises just as strongly that 
every effort be made for the proper preparation of country school teachers 
to begin this instruction, and that every encouragment and inducement be 
offered those prepared to undertake it, to introduce and carry it on in the 
schools under their charge. 

L. D. Harvey, Chairman. 



THE ARGUMENT FOR INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION IN SCHOOLS 
FOR RURAL COMMUNITIES 

The term "industrial education" has not as yet a well-settled, generally 
accepted meaning. It is sometimes applied to the training for skill in various 
technical operations to be employed later in the arts. Again the work of the 
trade school, where the chief aim is to develop skill in the processes of a 
given trade and little else demanded, is frequently spoken of as industrial 
education. 

Too often the conception of industrial education sees in skillful manipula- 
tive processes of value to the individual, the chief end of such education and 
fails to recognize the extent and importance of the mental and moral training 
involved in securing this end. 

While the difficulty in framing an adequate definition of so inclusive a 
term as industrial education is recognized, it seems necessary to offer such a 
definition as may be accepted for the purposes of this report. With this end 
in view, the following is presented: 

Industrial education has for its purpose the acquiring of a body of usable 
knowledge of greater or less extent relating to industrial conditions, processes, 
and organization, and to the administration of affairs incident to the environ- 
ment of the individual being educated, involving the gaining of some skill in 
the use of such knowledge, and the securing of mental, aesthetic, and ethical 
training thru the acquisition and use of the knowledge indicated. 



INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION IN RURAL SCHOOLS n 

* 

INDUSTRIAL CONDITIONS 

The study at first hand of industrial conditions as they exist upon the farm, 
and in the relations of the farmer to those whom he supplies with the products 
of the farm and who in turn supply him with the things he needs and does not 
produce, affords opportunity for developing the power of observation and 
exercising the reason far beyond that afforded by a study of what others have 
written concerning these conditions, and is the necessary preliminary step for 
effectiveness in the latter form of study, in that it affords in the simplest and 
most natural way the apperceptive material necessary for the understanding 
of the verbal exposition and discussion of industrial conditions. 

Such a study paves the way for an understanding of these conditions — of 
what in them is faulty; how far the farmer is responsible for the faulty con- 
ditions; what is essential for their improvement; how far their improvement 
demands co-operative as well as individual action, the character of that 
co-operation and the means necessary to secure it; how far their improvement 
demands governmental action, the character of that action, and the steps 
necessary to bring it about. 

INDUSTRIAL PROCESSES 

The study of industrial processes as employed upon the farm covers a 
wide range of activities incident to the housing, feeding, and clothing of the 
family; the treatment of the soil; the cultivation, harvesting, and the care of 
field crops; the care and treatment of domestic animals; and the marketing 
of the surplus animal and vegetable products of the farm. Such a study 
involves a comparison of the different processes employed for the same end 
by the same or different individuals ; the results of processes ; how far unsatis- 
factory results are due to the processes employed; what modification or 
substitution of processes is necessary to improve results with reasons for the 
changes; the adaptation, skillful use, and proper care of tools and implements 
used in the processes. 

INDUSTRIAL ORGANIZATION 

Successful industrial organization on the farm and among the farmers of 
a community requires a study of the adaptation of soil, climate, labor supply, 
and market, in determining the relative importance of stock raising and field 
crops and the varieties best suited to local conditions; the laying out of the 
farm with reference to production areas needed for and best suited to the 
various crops for a given year, involving the use of fertilizers, their varieties, 
cost, and supply, and the rotation of crops covering a number of years; 
co-operative efforts with other farmers for the purchase of supplies of various 
kinds, the preparation for market and the marketing of farm products. 

ADMINISTRATION OF INDUSTRIAL AFFAIRS 

In the study of the administration of affairs incident to the environment 
of the individual being trained, there is involved the whole question of the 
business management of the farm and the household, including a system of 



NATIONAL ED UCA TIONA L A SSOCIA TION 



farm and household accounting and the practical application of the knowledge 
and skill acquired thru the study of local industrial conditions, processes, 
and organization. 

Classes of Activities Required by Industrial Education. — In industrial 
education three classes of activities are brought into play. They are the 
mental, the moral, and the physical. 

Industrial education, therefore, has to deal with the development and 
training of these three classes of activities, and utilizes as educational means 
the environment of the pupil and the affairs and industries of his region. 

The educational effort employed in most systems of schools deals almost 
exclusively with mental and moral activities. Industrial education demands 
a place for the development of physical activities directed to useful ends, not 
regarded as necessary in other phases of educational work and thru the prepara- 
tion for and exercise of these activities, furnishes mental and moral training 
unexcelled for the general development of the individual by any other form 
of educational effort requiring an equal amount of time. It is believed also 
that it gives, in addition to this general training, a practical knowledge and 
skill in dealing with the affairs of rural life — an added interest in the possi- 
bilities and advantages of that life — and that it will make the individual thus 
trained, and because of this training, a more efficient member of society in 
country or city than he would be as a result of training in the rural schools as 
at present organized and conducted. 

In the educational effort which ignores the development and training of 
physical activities, the material employed in developing and training mental 
and moral activities is found chiefly in books. The immediate stimulus for 
such activities is the word upon the printed page. The word is the sign of 
an idea. The meaning of the word, and hence the character of the stimulus 
which it affords, are predetermined by the ideas existing in the mind of the 
reader, and therefore its effect in producing required activity is limited by the 
character of the ideas present in the mind at the time of the reading. 

A verbal description or exposition of industrial conditions, processes, 
organization, and administration, and of their products, no matter how com- 
plete, systematic, and accurate it may be, fails to create in the mind of the 
listener or reader mental pictures as clear, accurate, and complete as result 
from personal observation and study of the things under consideration. These 
pictures are made still more accurate and complete when the individual him- 
self enters into the study of the conditions with a view to suggesting plans for 
their improvement, masters the processes thru intelligent practice, or engages 
in the simplest work of organization and administration, and thus paves the 
way for the solution of their more complicated processes. 

These mental pictures reach a still higher stage of clearness and become 
most permanently fixed in the mind when the individual, thru the use of 
words, adequately sets forth the results of his observation, study, and activ- 
ities as shown in the product of the processes employed, or in the improved 
conditions, organization, and administration of affairs. 



INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION IN RURAL SCHOOLS 13 

The physical activities involved in industrial effort center chiefly in the 
hand, and until the stage of automatism is reached, they are guided and con- 
trolled by the active operations of the mind. 

The people living upon the farm are engaged in industrial effort of various 
forms, and in most of these forms properly co-ordinated mental and physical 
activities are a necessity. 

It is evident, with the definition given in mind, that industrial education 
is not all of education ; that it may or may not have for its purpose the direct 
preparation of the pupil for the practice of a given art of process ; that in any 
given school it may be the leading feature, or in fact, the sole feature; while 
on the other hand, it may simply be one feature and not the leading one ; and 
that in any case its completeness is a relative matter. 

Up to the present time, the work in the schools established in rural com- 
munities, both elementary and secondary, has been lacking in the elements 
of industrial training. The chief aim has been to acquire knowledge from 
books and to secure mental training thru the acquisition of that knowledge. 

The doing demanded of the child has been almost entirely in the field of 
mental acquisition resulting chiefly from a study of what others have said and 
done, the use of pencil and pen furnishing about the only illustrations of doing 
requiring the use of the hand. 

It will be seen from the definition that industrial education considered by 
itself or as a phase of our general educational system involves a line of training 
in doing which shall employ the hand much more fully than it is now employed 
by the demands of the public school; the acquisition of a body of knowledge 
relating to the things about the pupil not heretofore required; and a mental 
training, if not different, at least an enlargement of that now demanded, 
because it requires the mind to deal with things and physical processes as well 
as with words; and further, because of its dealing with things and processes 
characteristic of the environment of the individual, it will result in the devel- 
opment of interests not awakened thru the work of the public school as at 
present administered. These interests will be of value to the individual 
because of their vital connection with the things which are likely to actively 
concern him when the work of the school room is finished. 

It is conceded by all students of education that the conditions in the country 
schools are not today what they should be for the proper preparation of country 
boys and girls for American citizenship. Briefly stated, these conditions are: 
poor, ill-kept, poorly furnished, inadequate school buildings with surround- 
ings the most depressing; frequent changes of teachers, but infrequently for 
the better; irregular attendance of those enrolled; withdrawal from school 
at too early an age; inadequate supervision; schools too small to present 
conditions for successful work. 

It is not intended to convey the impression that there are not rural schools 
well housed, with trained, experienced, progressive teachers, and with teach- 
ing equipment entirely adequate, nor that there are not some localities where 



i 4 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION 

pupils attend with a reasonable degree of regularity for a reasonable number 
of years. But the number of such schools is not so large as it should be to 
leave us without a rural-school problem of the most vital importance. 

Nearly one-half of the children in the United States who are in the public 
schools are enrolled in these rural schools. It is safe to say, taking the country 
at large, that more than 95 per cent, of the rural-school children attend no 
other than the district school. They are entitled to something better. The 
state is entitled to something better in the preparation of its youth for the duties 
of citizenship. 

If the scope and character of instruction given in the rural schools are to 
be improved, we must first of all determine the causes for existing conditions 
responsible for the poor results obtained in these schools. Having determined 
the causes, we are then prepared to consider the means which must be 
employed to remove those causes. 

It is the belief of the committee that the chief cause for all the evils above 
enumerated is the low educational ideals of the people in the rural communi- 
ties. This cause exists because of the lack of a proper conception of what 
true education means, of what is possible in the field of industrial education 
for country children, and of its value to them. Lacking this conception, 
they fail to appreciate the necessity for keeping their children in school for a 
proper length of time and for making the proper expenditures to secure the 
essentials in teaching force, equipment, and supervision. This lack on the 
part of the rural population is largely due to the character of their education 
and to their environment. 

While other causes than the one stated may seem to have operated to 
develop conditions interfering with the efficiency of the rural school, it is 
believed that all such causes may be reduced in the final analysis to the one 
stated. If this is the correct view, it follows that the problem of improving 
the rural schools resolves itself into the problem of elevating the educational 
ideals of the people in rural communities. 

It cannot be denied that there are serious difficulties in the carrying out 
of this program, but something is gained when the point of attack is definitely 
determined. The isolation of the rural school and the rural family, their 
remoteness from centers of educational influence, introduce elements into 
the problem which do not exist when the improvement of the city schools is 
being considered. It is not enough to point out the shortcomings of the rural 
school; to present the conditions which stand in the way of its improvement. 
More than this must be done. The people in the country must be shown 
what must be done and, thru practical illustration, what can be done to improve 
conditions. Constructive work of the highest order is needed. 

Before higher ideals can be developed, there must come a knowledge of 
what is essential for better conditions — and by this knowledge, is meant not 
simply what students of the subject may understand and agree to be essential, 
but what the country people shall also understand and agree to be essential 



INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION IN RURAL SCHOOLS 15 

conditions. When an individual is to be convinced as to the correctness of a 
proposition which sets forth something to be done and which he is to do, if it 
be done, it is essential to»present it from a point of view which appeals to his 
own interests or to the interests of those with whom he is concerned. 

Here is where industrial education enters the field. It is not easy today 
to even get an audience among the country people for the purpose of discussing 
before them the shortcomings of their schools and to present the necessity for 
their improvement, so long as no departure is made in our discussion from 
the lines of their past development and present organization. But the moment 
it is understood that we are to discuss the question of a change in the rural- 
school system which shall introduce a course of industrial training dealing 
with the elements of agriculture, with manual training, and domestic science, 
their attention is challenged and their interest awakened. Such a proposition 
appeals to them at once as having a practical utility which will increase the 
productive capacity of their children, better fitting them for earning a liveli- 
hood, and opening up to them such possibilities in life upon the farm as will 
induce more of them to remain in the country, rendering the attractions of the 
city less alluring than at present. 

Show them the possibilities of instruction concerning the general plan of 
the farm and its scientific organization ; the soil and its composition ; the kind 
of soil needed for certain crops ; the effect of raising year after year the same 
crop upon the same soil; the effect of rotation of crops; the proper mode of 
tillage; the treatment of worn-out soils; and the best modes of fertilizing soil 
for certain purposes. Indicate what may be done in instructing the children 
as to the plant life of the farm; varieties which may best be grown in the 
different localities for profit or pleasure; the modes of selecting, caring for, 
and improving varieties by proper breeding; the proper time and modes of 
planting; the most improved processes of cultivation; treatment to prevent 
the ravages of insects and other pests; and the proper mode of harvesting, 
caring for, and marketing the products of the farm. Outline the instruction 
which may profitably be given concerning the animal life of the farm, involv- 
ing a knowledge of breeds and breeding; feeds and feeding, selection and 
care of stock designed for certain purposes, and the treatment of their diseases. 
Propose that their school shall teach a practical system of keeping farm and 
household accounts; that they shall give such instruction in manual training 
as shall make the boys acquainted with the common tools upon the farm and 
develop a reasonable skill in their use ; as shall give them practical knowledge 
of the elements of blacksmithing ; of the architecture of farm buildings; as 
shall afford their girls an opportunity to master the elements of domestic 
economy and something of the utilities and graces of home making. 

When you have done this, you have interested those to whom you have 
addressed yourself ; you have opened up to them possibilities in the instruction 
of their children of which they never had dreamed, or had simply dreamed of 
without realizing their possibility. You have presented to them what is 



1 6 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION 

perhaps the most powerful argument which can be addressed to the ordinary 
human being — the dollar-and-cent argument. 

In their view, grammar, geography, history, language, and even arith- 
metic fade into insignificance before the practical utility of this kind of train- 
ing. You have presented to them something which appeals to their interest 
and which becomes a most powerful incentive to action on their part. 

Make this the corner stone of your scheme for rebuilding the common 
school system, and you have the people with you. You have presented that 
which is knowledge to you. It has now become knowledge to them. You 
have laid the foundation for the development of better educational ideals, 
and upon it you may build your educational structure without the omission 
of a single valuable feature now found in the rural-school system. Nothing 
is lost and much is gained for the schools because you have gained the atten- 
tion, the interest, the sympathy, and the support of the people who must 
maintain these schools. 

It may appear that too much is claimed from the introduction of industrial 
education as a definite feature of rural-school work. It is not expected that 
this line of work can become a properly organized and co-ordinated part of 
the work in all rural schools at once, nor in fact that it'can ever be developed 
to any considerable extent without a material modification and extension of 
the present plan of rural-school organization. Such a modification will 
come slowly at the best. Geographical and other conditions will make it 
impossible to effect any material modification for many years in certain locali- 
ties. Its introduction to any considerable extent demands increased expendi- 
ture for teaching force and for equipment; and to secure the best results, the 
school life of the pupil must be extended thru a longer period than at present. 
This adds another element of cost in the education of the country child. 
Those who have had experience in attempting to induce farmers to increase 
taxes for any purpose will fully appreciate the necessity for the presentation 
of arguments that are so clear and conclusive, and appeal so strongly to the 
necessity of the persons to be reached, as to make clear that the failure to 
thus increase taxes involves an element of loss to the individual. The people 
who support the rural schools must be educated to a higher standard as to 
the needs of their children and the necessary changes in the work of their 
schools to meet these needs. 

There has never been a time in the history of this country when the argu- 
ments for industrial education in rural communities could be presented with 
as great force as at the present time. At no time before have farmers ever 
stood facing such problems of industrial organization as they do today. Com- 
petition is no longer confined to the commercial world. The farmer finds 
himself face to face with the problem of competition with farmers in his own 
and other localities as never before. It is no longer a question of the man 
who can work the most hours and the hardest, but it is a question of the man 
who works most effectively, and he is the one who has been prepared for it 



INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION ' IN RURAL SCHOOLS 17 

by a study of what is essential, a training in thinking and doing in dealing 
with these essentials, and who now puts the best thinking and doing into his 
work. 

Is it possible that in almost every other line of human endeavor schools 
have been organized and are being carried on to train men for law, for the 
ministry, for engineering, in fact for almost every department of technical 
labor, and that there is no necessity for schools which shall specially train 
the farmer's boy and girl for their work upon the farm ? 

It may be said that it is not the business of the common schools to train 
mechanics, nor to train farmers. That perhaps may be conceded; but it is 
the business of the common schools to so train those attending them as to 
make them more effective and resourceful in whatever line of work they may 
enter. It is the business of the rural schools, which give a large majority of 
the rural-school population all the education they ever get in school, to defi- 
nitely train these pupils with reference to their present environment ; and this 
is reinforced by the fact that the major portion of these pupils, through the 
productive period of life, will be concerned with the activities incident to 
country life. 

For the limited number of country children who continue their education 
beyond what the rural-school system should offer, amp'e facilities are already 
provided in secondary schools and higher educational institutions, either 
public or private, offering general or technical training. 

The present plan of organization of the common-school system seems to 
be upon the basis that its prime purpose is to prepare the pupils to enter the 
secondary schools; and that the prime purpose of the secondary schools is to 
prepare pupils to enter higher educational institutions. 

It is time to change front in our plan of elementary-and secondary- 
school organization. It is time to recognize the fact that a system of rural 
schools should plan its course of instruction with reference to the needs of the 
95 per cent, of the pupils who attend them and who attend no other school, 
rather than with reference to the small remaining percentage who go on to a 
more advanced school. It is time to recognize that the present courses of 
study open to children in the rural schools, offering books as the only sources 
of knowledge and words as the only stimulus to mental activity, completely 
ignoring environment as a source of knowledge, a stimulus to thought, and an 
inspiration to action, are not the best for any who attend these schools, irre- 
spective of whether they go from them to engage in their life work or continue 
their studies in other schools. 

Preparation for life is a term often used, and in some quarters it is urged 
that the elementary and secondary schools should be planned to furnish such 
preparation. It should be recognized that the school is only one factor in 
the education of any individual; and that at best whatever preparation it 
affords for life must be partial — that it is a beginning — but it must not be for- 
gotten that it is important that this preparation be well begun. 



NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION 



In discussing the question of the proper organization of the elementary 
and secondary schools, it is customary to admit that their courses of study 
should be framed with reference to the preparation of pupils for their life 
work rather than for advanced work in school. They are not so framed. In 
many influential educational centers it is admitted with equal readiness that 
the work in all schools designed to prepare for the next higher grade of schools 
is the very best possible preparation for life. Interested witnesses frequently 
make admissions which are not accepted by the court without corroborative 
evidence. 

This committee does not hesitate to say that in its judgment the rural 
schools which train nearly one-half the school population of this country, so 
far as school training goes, should definitely recognize the fact that the major 
portion of those being trained will continue to live upon the farm; and that 
there should be specific, definite, technical training fitting them for the activi- 
ties of farm life. Such schools will not make farmers nor housekeepers, but 
they will interest boys and girls in farming and housekeeping and the problems 
connected with these two important vocations. Work in such schools will 
make them intelligent upon the subjects pertaining to these vocations. It will 
train their thinking, and make it more effective in dealing with the problems 
growing out of these vocations, because during their school life a portion of 
their thinking is directed toward the solution of these problems. It will give 
such training of the hand as will enable both boys and girls to do more easily 
and effectively the things demanded to be done by these vocations, because 
it will offer them definite training in doing along related lines of activity. 

The committee further believes, and does not hesitate to say, that a course 
of study framed with the ends in view here stated, furnishes a knowledge 
content of far greater value to the country child than courses of study as at 
present organized; and further, that the mental training involved in the 
mastery of the course of study as modified by the introduction of the industrial 
phases of education is of a higher order than that resulting from a mastery of 
the present courses of study. It is of a higher order, because it deals with a 
wider range of subjects; with a consideration of things in their relation to 
each other, to other things, and to the individual; with the development, 
modification, and adaptation of these things to serve the needs of man — and 
this largely thru physical doing, controlled and directed by mental activitv 
to useful ends. 

It may, and doubtless will, be claimed by many that the educational needs 
of the child are the same whether he is reared in the city or in the country, 
and determined without reference to whether his activities are to be employed 
in city or country after leaving school. 

We may say that education demands, on the intellectual side, the devel- 
opment, control, and training for effective use of the varied activities of the 
mind, thru the action of stimuli of the right kind, properly applied at the 
right time. This, it is believed, may be laid down as universally true in 



INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION IN RURAL SCHOOLS 19 

the educational processes. The work of the teacher, then, in the develop- 
ment, control, and training of the intellectual powers of the child is selecting 
the stimulus proper in kind and time, and thru right methods of applying 
it, securing the kind and amount of mental activity, properly directed, 
required to meet the needs of the pupil at a given time for given ends. 

It will be apparent that in the field now under consideration — the intel- 
lectual side of education — the nature of the mind determines what is essential 
in the educational processes, and this without reference to environment. It 
will also be evident that the nature of the mind does not determine the choice 
of material available as the source of stimuli for various forms of mental activity 
and control. 

Material may be employed as the source of stimuli to mental activity and 
be excellent for that purpose while having little or no other value. Other 
material may be employed of equal value for the same purpose and possessing 
further value of a high order as usable knowledge. It is believed that no one 
will take issue with the statement that whenever material of the latter kind 
can be employed that will fully meet the needs of the child by furnishing the 
proper stimuli for desired mental activities, it should be employed, and not 
be displaced by that material which has a value solely as a source of stimuli 
but without value as usable knowledge. 

Material found on the printed page, if within the comprehension of the 
child, may be a source of stimuli for mental activity of a high order and of 
wide range, and it may have a knowledge value as well, but this is not the only 
material possessing such value. Material things about the pupil may be made 
to present stimuli for mental activity equally broad and equally necessary 
to the proper development of the individual. The mental activity necessary 
in determining, guiding, and controlling motor activity is a kind as important 
for the proper education of the child on the intellectual side as any which 
may result from the study of books; and for the individual whose life work 
is to demand the use of motor activities, it is of higher value than the mental 
activity of the same kind but which is not associated with motor activity, 
because it involves two co-ordinated forms of activity instead of one form not 
co-ordinated with any other. 

The environment of the country child differs materially from that of the 
city child. Not all country children will remain in the country ; few city bred 
children will remove from the city. The majority of those reared in either 
environment are likely to spend the greater portion of their lives within a 
similar environment. Therefore, it follows that in the education of the child, 
whatever of material things within his environment can be used as the source 
of appropriate stimuli for needed mental activities, should be so used. What- 
ever types of motor activity demand important mental activity for their initia- 
tive or control should be employed in the educative process if adapted to the 
child's stage of development; and if these types of motor activity are character- 
istic of the demands of environment, so much the better. If we add to this 



NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION 



the further statement that, when this material possesses a knowledge value 
of a high order to the individual, an added reason is furnished for its employ- 
ment. These reasons make clear the statement that the educational needs 
of the country and the city boy are different, at least in so far as the use of 
material possessing a knowledge value is concerned and also in the use of 
material requiring motor activities. 

STATEMENT OF THE CASE FOR INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION FOR RURAL 

COMMUNITIES 

The case for industrial education is made up as follows: Physical and 
mental activities effectively directed to useful ends are a necessity for the 
farming population and also for the majority of mankind. Systematic direc- 
tion and training are essential for the proper development and control of these 
activities. For the best results such training must come early in life, during 
the period when the child is properly found in the school. Such systematic 
direction and training are not now given during this period, and are not likely 
to be given outside of the school. 

If the school is to fit the great majority of children in the country for life, 
it must fit them to deal with the things of their environment thru physical 
activities co-ordinated with mental and moral activities. 

The committee believes that the training afforded by the mastery of a 
course of study which includes the industrial phase of education will broaden 
the outlook of pupils, and because of this wider view will open up and make 
attractive lines of work upon the farm which otherwise would not .appeal to 
them; that it will develop self-dependence and moral stamina, thru sustained 
effort for worthy ends ; and that for the boy or girl who does not remain upon 
the farm it is superior to the training offered thru the medium of the present 
course of study in the rural schools. 



WHAT IN THE FIELD OF INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION SHOULD 

BE UNDERTAKEN IN SCHOOLS ADAPTED TO THE 

NEEDS OF RURAL COMMUNITIES 

In attempting to state what should be attempted in industrial education 
in rural communities, it is not intended that everything here set forth shall 
be included in the industrial work attempted in any school or system of schools, 
but what from the standpoint of the Committee, may properly be incorporated 
in the elementary-and secondary-school work with such differentiation as may 
be necessary because of character of school, location, environment, character 
and extent of equipment, and quality of teaching force. 

AGRICULTURE 

General Statement. — In the field of agriculture, there may properly be 
demanded a knowledge of the elements of agricultural science, of good agricul- 
tural practice, and some skill in applying this knowledge. 



INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION IN RURAL SCHOOLS 21 

Without attempting to go into detail, it seems entirely reasonable to assume 
that within this field there may be included a treatment of the following 
subjects : 

The Soil. 

Plant Life. 

Animal Life. 

Economics of Agriculture. 

In the elementary schools the work here outlined may profitably be pre- 
ceded by a course in nature study. Such a course is presented in another 
place. 

The Soil. — In dealing with the first topic, consideration should be given 
to its composition, modes of cultivation, fertilization, drainage, effect of 
rotation of crops upon the soil, means of restoring worn-out soil to condition 
of fertility, and the adaptation of different soils to different classes of products. 

Plant Life. — Under the second topic, there should be a consideration of 
the various types of cultivated plants, including a knowledge of the best 
varieties for local cultivation, considering climate, soil, cost of raising; propa- 
gation, modes of growth; breeding; tillage; modes of harvesting, care for 
after harvesting, including selection and care of seeds; effect upon soil; eco- 
nomic values for marketing, for feeding, and for fertilization. It may be 
pertinent to inquire whether, for the boy who is to be a farmer, or for the 
girl who is to be a farmer's wife, and possibly for any other boy or girl, the 
botany of the corn plants, and the structure and modes of growth and repro- 
duction of other forms of plant life on the farm, if properly taught, may not 
prove at least of as much value as the study of mosses,, or other form of plant 
life upon which much time is now spent in the field of botanical instruction. 
This study would be for the country child a matter of practical utility, and 
would give him knowledge that would awaken an interest in the growth of 
agricultural products, resulting in more intelligent cultivation, better adapta- 
tion of crops to soil, and better financial returns. 

Animal Life. — Treatment of the third topic should provide for a study 
of the domestic animals grown for pleasure or profit, including a knowledge 
of breeds and breeding ; best varieties for certain purposes; feeding; judging; 
care, including the prevention and treatment of the diseases of domestic 
animals ; preparation for marketing either the animals or their products ; and 
such knowledge of animal pests, and of the modes of treatment for the pre- 
vention of their ravages, thus far discovered, as would enable the farmer to 
save many a crop which otherwise might be ruined. Again we may inquire, 
may not such knowledge be so organized as to be of at least as great value, 
both for knowledge and for training, as the study of the tadpole, the crayfish, 
and the angleworm ? 

The Economics of Agriculture. — In treating the fourth topic, study should 
be made of the relations of the farmers to local and general industrial and 
commercial organization; of the administration of the affairs of farm life, 



NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION 



including co-operative effort; and of a practical system of accounting for the 
purpose of enabling the farmer to determine with the same accuracy as the 
manufacturer does, the cost of any given product during any given period 
of time. 

DOMESTIC ART, ECONOMY, AND SCIENCE 

General Statement. — Within this -field the scope of the work may embrace 
the acquiring of a knowledge of scientific principles and truths essential as a 
basis for the proper organization and administration of the activities of the 
household upon a scientific basis; of a knowledge of the facts, non-scientific 
in character, but necessary for the proper exercise of activities within the house- 
hold upon an economic basis; practice in the application and use of this knowl- 
edge. 

In the accomplishment of the purpose set forth in the foregoing general 
statement, the following topics should be taken up in as much detail as con- 
ditions will permit: 

Textile Fabrics. 

Food materials and Food. 

Household Economy and Management. 

Science. 

Textile fabrics for wearing apparel and for decorative purposes. — Work 
under this topic may involve instruction and practice in sewing, dressmaking, 
and the making of other articles of wearing apparel; millinery; a study of 
the quality of textile fabrics and their adaptation to certain uses and con- 
ditions; harmony of design, color, and material in clothing and for decorative 
home furnishing. 

Food materials and food. — The proper treatment of this topic demands a 
study of food values, nutritive and economic; selection and care of food 
materials; preparation of foods, plain, invalid, and fancy cooking; serving of 
foods; equipment of dining room and kitchen, and care of dining room and 
kitchen utensils; practical work in laboratory, kitchen, and dining room, with 
a study of reasons for processes employed. 

Household economy and management. — Under this topic the following 
subjects should be studied both from a theoretical and a practical standpoint : 
Furnishing and care of house ; house sanitation • emergencies and home nurs- 
ing; laundry work; true economy in marketing and in the management of 
household affairs; household accounts. 

Science. — Under this head, such elementary work should be given in 
chemistry, biology, physics, physiology, and hygiene, as may aid in the 
mastery of the preceding topics. 

manual training 
General Statement. — In the field of manual training considered apart 
from the work in domestic art, economy, and science, the following ends are 
sought: The training of physical, intellectual, and moral activities thru the 



INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION IN RURAL SCHOOLS 23 

use 0) tools and materials, together with such a practical knowledge of these tools 
and materials and their uses, as shall enable the boy to do very many things in 
the line of construction and repair work necessary upon the farm which would 
otherwise have to be done by hired labor at considerable expense. 

The materials most valuable for this work in the class of schools under 
consideration are wood, iron, leather, and paint. The necessary tools for 
the ordinary work with these materials should be employed. Doubtless 
other materials and other tools may be used with profit. The character, 
variety, and extent of use both of tools and materials should be largely deter- 
mined by local environment and industries. 



CLASSES OF RURAL SCHOOLS 

In considering the question of industrial education in schools for rural 
communities, it is necessary to consider the classes of schools now existing 
or which it may be desirable to organize to meet the educational needs of 
children living in the country. These schools may be classed as elementary 
and secondary. 

Of the elementary schools, two types are to be considered : First, the one- 
room district school; second, the consolidated district school formed by uniting 
several one-room or two-room district schools into one consolidated school. 

Of the secondary schools, four types may be considered: First, the 
consolidated school which offers in addition to the elementary course, one or 
more years of high-school work; second, the rural high school; third, the 
village high school with a large percentage of attendance from the country; 
fourth, the agricultural high school giving distinct lines of industrial work. 

The consolidated school is now found in nearly or quite one-half of the 
states of the Union. In a large number of these schools no secondary work is 
attempted. In the others the secondary work covers a period ranging from 
a few months to four years, and is generally similar to that done in schools 
of the second and third types. The tendency seems to be to increase the 
amount of secondary work in these schools, but too frequently without a cor- 
responding increase in the teaching force, or a modification of the course of 
study. 

The second type, the rural high school, is found in a limited number of 
states. In some cases the township, in other cases a smaller territory, con- 
stitutes the district. These high schools as they exist today are rural, only 
in that they are located in the country. Their courses of study up to the 
present time have been practically the same as the courses of study in the city 
high schools. 

The village high school is adapted to the needs of the country children 
only because it is convenient of access. Its course of study follows very 
closely the courses in the city high schools. For our purposes the rural high 



24 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION 

school and the village high school may be regarded as belonging to the same 
class. 

Two types of agricultural high schools are now in existence, the one com- 
prising a single county within its district, and the other the state. Schools in 
each of these types aim to offer instruction in subjects which are distinctively 
industrial in character, not only in the field of agriculture but in manual 
training, domestic art, economy, and science, and in the organization and 
administration of farm and household affairs. 

The county agricultural high school is organized to meet the needs of 
country children within the county, who are prepared through existing country 
schools to begin secondary work. Such a school centrally located in the county 
is easily accessible from all parts of the district. Many are able to attend regu- 
larly and live at home, while most of those who do not do so are able to go to 
their homes at the end of the school week, thus keeping expenses extremely low. 

The cost of maintaining the school is borne by the county and state, the 
county paying one-third and the state two-thirds of the cost of maintenance 
in the case of the two schools of this class in Wisconsin. These two schools 
are a part of the public-school system of the state, and are the only ones of 
the kind in the United States. 

The state agricultural high school is designed to meet the needs of the 
same class of pupils as the county schools, and the entire state constitutes the 
school district. The cost of its maintenance is borne by the state. The size 
of the district, with its greater wealth, makes it possible to furnish a complete 
equipment, a large teaching force, and to offer a greater variety of courses 
than the county schools. In these respects it presents somewhat greater 
advantages than the county school. These advantages are offset by the 
greater distances pupils are compelled to go to reach the school, and by its 
limited influence in remote sections, because of lack of immediate contact 
with the people at any considerable distance from it. The first school of this 
kind in the United States was organized in Minnesota. A few similar schools 
have since been organized in other states. 



INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION IN THE ONE-ROOM RURAL SCHOOLS 

AGRICULTURE 

The attempt to give instruction in the elements of agriculture in the rural 
district schools has been made at different times in this country and in other 
countries. Up to date, the experiment has not been successful to any con- 
siderable degree thruout any great extent of territory. Here and there indi- 
vidual teachers have, under somewhat unusual conditions, succeeded to a 
reasonable degree, but generally the experiment has resulted in failure. It 
has been tried in France, in Ireland, in Canada, and here and there in other 
foreign countries over limited areas. France, Ireland, and Canada have all 



INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION IN RURAL SCHOOLS 25 

abandoned the experiment because of its failure to meet expectations. It is 
now being undertaken again in Canada under somewhat unusual conditions, 
not thru governmental control but thru the philantrophy and public spirit 
of Sir William McDonald, who is personally paying the expenses of an experi- 
ment which is now being made, but which has not been continued long enough 
to warrant a definite conclusion as to its success. His plan involves the employ- 
ment of men thoroly trained in agricultural science and practice to lay out a 
scheme of work in the elements of agriculture, each for a little group of either 
five or ten schools. Each instructor then organizes the work in agriculture 
for his group of schools, spends one day in each week, or one day in each two 
weeks, according to the size of the group, giving instruction in this subject 
and laying out the work for the teacher until he shall come again. 

Even if this experiment shall prove successful under private support, it is 
questionable whether the expense involved in the administration of the plan 
may not be too great to render it feasible in a system of education supported 
solely by general taxation and where teachers are changed as frequently as 
with us. 

Experiments of various kinds and varying in extent have been tried in 
different parts of this country, but no very great success has yet been reported. 
In each country where the experiment has failed, the authorities have reported 
that the chief reason was the failure to secure teachers properly prepared to 
teach the subject. 

It is believed that all will concede that in this country that reason would 
have equal weight as applied to the force of country-school teachers. It is 
evident that before this phase of industrial education can be made a success 
in the one-room district schools, several things must be accomplished: first, 
there must be a body of teachers with special training for this work; second, 
pupils must remain longer in school; third, there must be a kind of work 
undertaken which shall be adapted to local conditions and limited to the 
capacity of pupils who are to take it ; this involves a wise determination of what 
should be undertaken, in any given locality, both as to the scope and method. 

To secure a body of better trained teachers, facilities must be offered for 
their training, which are not now in existence, and salaries must be materially 
increased. Parents must be led to see the necessity for pupils remaining 
longer in school. In many localities the length of the school year must be 
increased. 

It does not seem feasible under existing conditions to attempt a wholesale 
introduction of this phase of industrial education in these schools. 

INSTRUCTION IN AGRICULTURE SHOULD NOT BE MADE MANDATORY IN COUNTRY 
SCHOOLS HAVING BUT ONE TEACHER 

To require by law that every country school teacher shall give instruction 
in the elements of agriculture is, in the judgment of the committee, a most 
serious mistake. It will simply result in another failure to be added to the 



26 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION 

failures recorded in France, Ireland, and Canada. Such failures are likely 
to discourage further immediate efforts and prevent the present undertaking 
of what might otherwise be done. 

Facilities should be provided for preparing teachers to begin this work; 
every inducement should be offered them to make such preparation, and 
they should be encouraged to undertake it where there are pupils old enough 
to profit by such instruction. 

The committee is aware that its treatment of this phase of the subject is 
one which is not altogether pleasing to the popular fancy. It is a popular 
thing to talk of putting industrial education into the rural schools — and 
popular, doubtless, because its need is recognized — but a careful study of the 
outcome of what has been attempted thruout the world in this field will com- 
pel any man to reach the same conclusions as are here given. 

Something in the line of nature study and in the elements of agriculture 
may be introduced by enthusiastic teachers who make intelligent preparation 
for undertaking it, but the character and scope of the work must be within 
the range of the pupils' powers and must have an educational value. 

An outline of what may be attempted in nature study and agriculture 
under favorable conditions in these schools is given later in this report. 

MANUAL TRAINING AND DOMESTIC ART 

Here and there a teacher may be found who can give some elementary 
instruction in manual training in the district school, but the number of such 
teachers and the facilities for such work are limited, and great results cannot 
be expected. 

For the beginnings of the work in carpentry, a five-dollar outfit containing 
fourteen standard tools may be had, and the small amount of lumber required 
may be obtained easily. 

The school carpentry should keep in view the tools the boy will most 
probably have at home, and may well be directed to the making of articles 
which can be put to some immediate use at home or in the school. 

If in the school there are a number of large boys, the carpentry may well 
expand within a year or 'two, so as to take in the enterprise of building a small 
shop on the school grounds and fitting it up for working purposes. Under 
specially favorable circumstances, it will not be difficult to extend it to the 
making of plans for the construction of farm buildings of the simpler sort. 

With the right kind of a teacher, exercises may be given in the sewing of 
leather and in the splicing of ropes, finding practical application in the mend- 
ing of harness, making of halters, etc., as the necessities of the farm may require. 

Some practical lessons in painting and glazing may be given, and oppor- 
tunities are not lacking for applying the knowledge thus gained, on the school 
or farm buildings. 

In domestic art, with teachers properly trained (and they may perhaps 
secure training in some lines of this work more readily than in the other fields 



INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION IN RURAL SCHOOLS 27 

of industrial education, especially in sewing) something might be done in 
almost every country school with the girls, provided wisdom is used in the 
way the work is organized and carried on. 

REMARKS ON NATURE-STUDY TEACHING 

It should be the object of all nature-study work to put the pupil into touch 
and sympathy with the natural world in which he lives, and to use the objects 
and phenomena in this environment as a means of education. Every effort 
should be made, therefore, to give the pupil a correct mental and spiritual 
picture of his surroundings in their entirety, rather than to train him merely 
in certain unrelated objects or parts taken out of his surroundings. Of course, 
the pupil must be set at specific objects, but this is only because these objects 
should be studied in their relationships. It is not enough merely to study a 
leaf or a bird — these are only parts of the life of the neighborhood and the 
study of them should lead out to plants and birds and fields. Nature study 
constantly takes the pupil out from the schoolhouse into the larger school of 
Nature ; and it keeps him in touch with the out-of-doors the whole year round. 

The best nature-study lesson is that which has relation to something 
normal or native to the environment. The kind of tree that grows in the 
school yard or along the road, the birds that frequent the school yard and 
adjacent fields, the brook, the hills, the character of the soil; also any unusual 
or striking feature in the neighborhood — all these are proper subjects for 
nature-study work. Some of these subjects can be brought into all the grades. 
There is such a great variety of subjects in the environment, that it is difficult 
to choose any list that is better than another or that will apply to all parts of 
the country. The following lists comprise subjects that will be found to be 
useful and teachable. It is not expected that all these subjects be taught 
in any one year or one grade. Perhaps nine subjects in each grade will be 
sufficient, one subject continuing for a month. This will allow some degree 
of thoroness with the work, but will not keep the subject before the pupils 
so long as to make them tired of it. It is assumed that not more than one or 
two periods a week would be devoted to these subjects. 

The work in nature study should be simple, definite, accurate, and, above 
all, have relation to the lives of the children. Nature study should be clearly 
distinguished from object-lesson teaching; for object-lesson teaching nearly 
always takes the object out of the environment and therefore trains only the 
observation powers. Object-lesson teaching with natural history subjects is 
not nature study. 

The teacher should avoid the giving of mere information and the holding 
of the old-time kind of recitation. The teacher must remember that the 
recitation is a re-telling, that is, a re-citing ; the child tells the teacher what the 
teacher or book has previously told to the child. In fact, the teacher asks 
what the child remembers. Nature study teaching should proceed on the 
principle of questioning the children for the purpose of asking the child what 



28 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION 

he has found out, or what his own point of view is, or how his work may be 
improved. Some information must be given for the purpose of starting the 
pupil off and awakening his interest; but information-teaching with nature 
subjects is not nature study. 

Observation work should always be accurate. It is not to be understood, 
however, that accuracy means completeness. We are always in danger of 
giving the children the complete experience of grown-ups rather than the 
incomplete experience of themselves. It is not necessary, for example, to 
study the leaf in all its functions and all its structures at one time for the 
purpose of being able to say that the pupils have completed leaf study. The 
leaf should be studied because it is a part of the tree and has work to do. So 
far as possible, all nature-study work should begin with the functions, at least 
with the natural relations of the objects to their environment. 

It is always desirable to have the pupils feel that the nature-study work 
lies out of doors rather than in doors. The work is brought inside only when 
it can be better done in the schoolhouse. The excursion, therefore, becomes 
a very important part of nature-study work. However, the general promis- 
cuous excursion-going may be too indefinite and discursive to be anything 
more than a recreation; therefore the excursion should be planned for some 
definite object. Tell the pupils the general line of inquiry they are to make — 
to see a maple tree, to watch the fish in the brook, to examine the lichens on 
the rocks, to discuss the weeds in a fence corner, to watch the cows feeding, 
to discover the habits of a particular bird. Make the excursion short, definite, 
and for a purpose. 

In nature-study work in the earlier grades, the children should not be 
conscious that they are studying "science," although all the work should be 
scientific in the sense that it is accurate and definite so far as it is possible 
within the limitations of the child. 

There are three main elements in the out-of-doors: earth and sky and 
scenery; the plant population; the animal population. Any good nature 
study will reveal all of these to the pupil. 

In order to study these to best advantage, the pupil should have a labora- 
tory, in which the objects and phenomena may be under some control, be 
near at hand, and in which all the work may be concreted. This laboratory 
is the school garden. A considerable part of manual training, as well as 
nature study, may be associated with the school garden. All the handicraft 
of the garden is manual training — the making and repairing and cleaning of 
tools; the building of tool boxes or sheds; the making of bird-houses; the 
construction of fences and paths; making of labels; painting of tools and 
buildings. 

Scheme for Nature Study in School Years I to 5 

Following is a general outline or ground plan for work in nature study. 
It is exceedingly difficult to adapt nature-study work to school routine, because 
nature has no definite schedule and the subjects that the pupil must take up, 



INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION IN RURAL SCHOOLS 29 

if he is to come into essential relation with the out-of-doors, are numerous and 
of very many kinds. However, it is possible to classify these subjects, thereby 
throwing them into an orderly arrangement and providing for a continuity of 
work. The work should be progressive, one year leading to another year, 
because the child's horizon and capabilities are enlarging year by year. When 
the child has once traversed a subject, he should not be asked to go over the 
same work again in subsequent years. 

A syllabus that is merely a list of subjects is of very little value to the 
great majority of teachers. There is no inspiration in it and in the absence of 
direct suggestions of ways and means, the teacher is likely to lay it aside. 
All such syllabi, therefore, should be supplemented by hints to teachers; and 
the constant refrain in these hints should be suggestions as to how to get the 
pupil out of doors and into actual work. 

The teacher must not suppose that all of these various lessons or subjects 
mentioned in the following scheme are to be given simultaneously, as the 
schedule would seem to indicate. The scheme merely suggests what appear 
to be useful subjects and tries to present a natural sequence. If the teacher 
is working with the animal group, for example, all three of the "purposes" 
will be proceeding at once and will constitute one homogeneous subject, one 
day emphasis being put on one phase and another day on another phase. 
Probably no teacher will be able to cover all the subjects. The scheme 
presents enough subjects to enable the resourceful teacher to choose the work 
of the year, devoting to it one period or more a week. In choosing the sub- 
jects, the teacher must always be careful to construct such a sequence as will put 
the pupil into first-hand touch with the general pageant of the out-door world. 

The teacher should have a clear conception of the purpose of any lesson 
or of any line of effort. In the following syllabus, the purposes of the different 
pieces of work are stated at the outset, and a similar classification is carried 
down into the details of the work. These categories, however, do not represent 
distinct "studies" so much as different ways of looking at the general subject. 
For example, under "Earth and Sky" are divisions of the weather and of 
natural events. Very often these two subjects will be taught in one and the 
same lesson; but the teacher should always have clearly in mind that he is 
to interest the pupils in the weather as weather, and also in the progress of 
the seasons. Again, while the three categories under "Plants" may all be 
proceeding at the same time in certain cases, the teacher should know that 
there are at least these three general purposes to be kept in mind — to teach the 
plant population of the neighborhood, the way in which plants live, the par- 
ticular habits and marks of special plants or parts of plants. 

The committee does not intend to make a complete working syllabus on 
nature study, since this would be quite impossible for the entire United States ; 
nor is it the province of the committee to enter into school details. The 
following is an outline or framework which will serve to define nature-study 
work, and to suggest the kinds of subjects that may be profitably undertaken. 



3° 



NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION 



I. EARTH AND SKY 

There are four leading categories in this group: (i) the weather; (2) the natural 
events of the year; (3) the conformation of the surrounding country; (4) survey of a 
brook or other strong natural feature of the region. 

1. The weather. — First year: The child should observe and tell what the weather 
is, and should begin to learn to be weatherwise and to know the "signs" of the weather. 
Second year: Clouds, sunshine and shadow, both indoors and outdoors; sun-dial. 
Third year: Wind; making and flying kites; weather vanes; chimney hoods; effect of 
wind on shape of trees; begin weather record, perhaps as blackboard exercise. Fourth 
year: Temperature; begin thermometer readings; continue record, perhaps in note- 
book. Fifth year: Barometer; weather maps, signals and forecasts. 

2. Events of the year. — First year: Note the change of seasons; position of the sun 
at different seasons; holidays. Second year: Begin seasonal observations, chiefly on 
date of appearing of frogs, migrations of birds, etc. Third year: The calendar; continue 
observations, chiefly on trees, fruit trees, etc.; begin a record, perhaps on blackboard. 
Fourth year: Continue observations, taking up the farming industries if in the country; 
times of plowing, tilling, sowing, harvesting, wood-hauling, fence-building, etc.; making 
a diary of work in the community. 

3. Scenery, or conformation 0} region. — Second year: General observations as to 
contour of country, perhaps as seen from school room windows. Third year: More 
detailed observations, classifying into swamps, hills, flats, woodlands, river-beds, orchards, 
grazing lands, etc. Fourth year: Describe the scenery in oral and written work; how 
the scenery can be improved. Fifth year: Observations on a particular area, one farm, 
the school yard, the main road, etc.; make charts and drawings. 

4. Survey. — Third year: Begin a regular "survey" of a brook or other prominent 
natural feature of the region; it is better if the feature is near the school house; the first 
work will be chiefly exploration. Fourth year: Continue survey; begin to take definite 
measurements of the brook, width, depth, length, tributaries, pools, etc. Fifth year: 
Continue; describe the brook; make charts; determine the drainage basin and how the 
brook affects its region. 



The purposes of the animal work are chiefly three: (1) to determine the animal 
population of the region; (2) to discover how the animals are related to their environ- 
ment (ecology) ; (3) to study particular animals or groups of animals. 

1. Population. — First year: How many kinds of mammals, birds, insects, etc., does 
the child know ? let the child be kept on the lookout; train his observation; always include 
the farm animals within the scope of the observation. Second year: Carry the observa- 
tion further, with birds. Third year: Further with mammals. Fourth year: Further 
with fish, frogs, salamanders, etc.; aquarium. Fifth year: Insects; terrarium. 

2. Relations. — Second year: Where do the different birds live? what do they eat? 
nesting habits; classify as to habitats. Third year: Same with mammals. Fourth year: 
Same with fish, etc. Fifth year: Same with insects. 

3. Particular animals. — First year: Canary; cat. Second year: Robin; chicken; 
rabbit; dog; woolly bear; goldfish. Third year: Pigeon or dove; house or English 
sparrow; frog; turtle; cow; tent caterpillar or cabbage butterfly. Fourth year: Blue- 
bird; blackbird; crow; toad; squirrel and chipmunk; horse and mule; mouse; cricket. 
Fifth year: Poultry; salamanders; fish; water insects; moths and butterflies; sheep 
and goat; pigs; woodpeckers, thrushes, warblers, sparrows and other bird groups. 

III. PLANTS 

The purposes of plant work are similar to those of animal work: (1) to determine 
the plant population of the region; (2) plant relations (ecology); (3) particular plants 
and parts of plants. 



INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION IN RURAL SCHOOLS 31 

1. Population. — First year: Plant population, as for animals. Second year: 
Observations with garden flowers and vegetables. Third year: Wild flowers; preserva- 
tion of the wild flowers. Fourth year: Continue with bushes. Fifth year; Continue, 
with trees. 

2. Relations. — Second year: As with animals; habitats, etc., particularly with garden 
plants; distribution of seeds will be an incident in this and succeeding years. Third year: 
Continue, with wild flowers and weeds. Fourth year: Same with bushes. Fifth year: 
Same with trees; plant population of hills, swamps, open fields, etc. 

3. Particular plants and parts of plants. — Second year: Leaves; roots; flowers; 
seeds; fruits; some common vegetable or grain; strawberry. Third year: Hepatica, 
trillium, spring beauty, arbutus, or other early spring flowers; pussywillow; dandelion; 
sod and grass; morning glory; ferns; sweet pea; daisy; asters; goldenrod; Fourth 
year: Lilac; rose; elder; willows; snowball; sumac; hawthorn; blackberries; rasp- 
berries; currants and gooseberries; Virginia creeper; grape vine. Fifth year: Ever- 
greens; elms; maples; oaks; ashes; hickories and other nut trees; fruit trees. 

IV. SCHOOL GARDENS 

The purposes of school garden work may be thrown into three general divisions: 
(i) to make garden and acquire skill with tools (handicraft); (2) to learn how plants 
grow and behave under cultivation; (3) to discover what transpired in the garden. 

1. Handicraft. — First year: Simplest garden operations, as raking, sowing seeds, 
watering, shading, etc. Subsequent years: The garden work will naturally continue 
itself, and new problems will come into the horizon of the pupil as soon as he is ready for 
them. Such questions as staking, tying, thinning, transplanting, planting a bush or tree, 
distinguishing weeds, kinds of soil, and fertilizing will come up as the work proceeds. In 
all years, window gardens and plant boxes may be a regular part of the school garden work. 

2. How plants grow. — Second year: Germination; seed leaves. Third year: Seed 
testing; layers; bulbs. Fourth year: Identification of kinds of seeds; cuttings. Fifth 
year: How different kinds of plants grow and behave; grafting; pruning. 

3. Record. — Third and subsequent years: A garden record may be begun, at first 
probably as a blackboard exercise. Each garden worker in fourth year should have a 
note-book. 

SUGGESTIONS ON MEANS OF WORKING OUT THE NATURE-STUDY OUTLINE 

In the absence of any recognized system or method of handling nature- 
study work, the committee thinks it desirable to present a few definite lessons 
to illustrate why and how the work may be taken up. These are not meant 
to be model lessons, but only suggestions as to point of view, purpose, and 
method. Inasmuch as the very purpose of nature study is to relate the pupil 
to his environment, the ways and means 'must be modified with the environ- 
ment. This is why nature study is considered by many persons to be so 
difficult to teach — the teaching is almost wholly the expression of the indi- 
vidual teacher. 

ILLUSTRATIVE LESSONS ON EARTH AND SKY 
I. FIRST AND SECOND GRADES: SUNSHINE AND SHADOW 

Purpose of the lesson. — To help little folks to be "weather-wise," and to put them 
into sympathy with the weather. 

The lesson. — It will be of more value to children in the first and second grades to note 
the conditions associated with storm and sunshine than to take part in keeping a record 
of them. The most important result is that they shall get into the habit of noticing the 
weather and the out-of-door changes resulting from it. 



32 



NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION 



There will be the sunny day. Little children can be led to take an interest in the 
sunlight and to notice what it means in the out-of-doors. There are many ways of bring- 
ing about an interest in the sunshine that will suggest themselves to teachers. One way 
is to note the things that the sunlight reveals. There are the shadows, and every little 
child is interested in them. There is his own, sometimes large and sometimes small; 
sometimes he can find it and again it is not there; the shadows of the trees and where 
they fall at different times; the shadows cast by the current bushes; the shadows cast 
by the asters and golden rod ; the shadows at different times of the day. 

Then the sunny day will bring the reflections in the brook: his own round face; the 
trees and the water plants; the shadows made by the little water striders skipping over 
the surface — the range of his world mirrored there. These he can see and these things 
he will care for. Thru them he touches his environment. 

Another line of suggestion for lessons on weather may be found in the clouds. There 
are times during the school days when the sky is blue and the great white clouds are 
crossing it. Let the children go out into the yard with you for a few minutes and watch 
them. Let them talk about the clouds; let them notice the small ones and the large 
ones; let them tell you whether all are of the same color. What happens when one of 
these great clouds covers the sun ? What are the differences in the shadows then ? Will 
the rain come soon ? 

In these grades, the sun-dial and shadow-stick can be introduced; and if there is 
manual training in the school, these devices may be made by the older pupils. 

It will be a good thing to teach the children to enjoy a gray day. . A few minutes in 
the school yard under a gray sky will lay the foundation for this. What does the long, 
gray day foretell ? And the autumn skies with their wonderful cloud effects ? Can you 
not spare a little time from the routine of school work to stand beneath them, and to 
encourage the little folks to see them ? 

Children often hear the expression, "It is going to rain," or "It is going to snow." 
On such days, have a little outdoor experience with the weather. How does the air feel ? 
Is the wind blowing ? Which way do you turn to feel the wind in your face ? 

The children will soon come to name the kinds of days — hot days, cool days, bright 
sunny days, dull sunny days, bright gray days, dark days, gusty days, rainy days. 

II. THIRD GRADE: A RAIN STORM 

Purpose af the lesson. — (i) To put the pupil in the right attitude toward weather. 
(2) To interest the pupil in the changes to be seen in the out-of-doors after a storm; to lay 
foundations for geography lessons. 

The lesson. — Although discussion 'of a rain storm may take place profitably in the 
first and second grades, the best time for continued observation will be the third year in 
school. Then the pupils are ready to do some independent observing and they can seek 
certain definite results of the storm. 

The spring shower comes up suddenly; the room darkens and the children cannot 
see to work. This is the time to have them feel the part that the rain storm takes in their 
lives. It will be restful to lay all books aside, to clear the desks and study the shower. 
Can the rain be heard on the roof ? How cheery it sounds ! With closed eyes, you know 
that the drops are coming down thick and fast. Let us go to the windows. It is inter- 
esting to watch the water dash against the panes and roll down; to see it falling on the 
trees and flowers; to think what it means to the fields. How fast the streams flow in the 
gutters and ruts in the road ! Why ? How muddy the rills and rivulets are ! Why ? 
Where are the birds? What a good time Robin is having out there in the rain! Do 
you suppose the squirrel dislikes the rain ? Do the wild animals run for cover ? Are the 
cows and horses in the fields in a hurry to seek shelter from the storm ? 

The nature of the rain itself should be noted : Drops large or small ? Very numerous 
or relatively few on the pane ? Does the rain fall straight down or does it come slanting ? 



INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION IN RURAL SCHOOLS 33 

Does it strike hard ? Does it seem to come from a great height, or are the clouds low ? 
Let the first few drops strike on a clean piece of glass, then dry the glass. Is the glass 
soiled ? Why ? Catch some of the last drops in the same way. 

It frequently happens that the spring showers are heavy and brief. They cease before 
the close of school. The wise teacher will go out with the children to see the results of 
the storm. If her class is large, she can limit the observations to one or two definite 
things, as, for instance, the flowing of the water, making tiny valleys and carrying the waste 
material; but if there is time, she may take this opportunity for teaching some of the 
land and water forms, for after a shower these are present in miniature and are best taught 
afield. If the class is large, preparation for this lesson can be made by means of sand 
and clay maps, and then the children may be told what kinds of things to seek before 
leaving the school house. Young people enjoy a particular quest. Who will be the first 
to find an island, a peninsula, a lake, a mountain, a valley, a delta, a mountain range ? 
Then will come the question, How are these land and water forms made ? 

in. fourth grade: scenery 

Purpose of the lesson. — To familiarize pupils with the scenery about their homes 
and school. To lead them to think of ways to protect the natural beauties of the surround- 
ing country. To suggest improvements. 

The lesson. — With large classes, it is very difficult to conduct field trips. Every 
teacher, however, can have one or two afternoons out of doors with her pupils, and much 
can be accomplished in this time. These afternoons will stand out strongly in the lives 
of the children thru all the coming years. 

If there is a height of land in the vicinity of the school, let this be the place to which 
the field trips will lead. Before leaving the school house, test the children's knowledge 
as to what can be seen from the hill. Then ask them to take note-bcoks and make a 
list of objects that will be valuable later in preparing a full description of the scenery. 

An occasional suggestion from the teacher will start the pupil on a new line of thought. 
The following might be considered: 

1. The natural features of the region : mountains, hills, lake, river, creek, etc. Which 
features give the character to the scene, and why ? Locate the features. 

2. If there is wood describe its general features. Ask what kind of trees predominate 
in the wood; the children may not know; encourage them to find out within a week. 

3. Locate the finest tree. Describe it. How did it come to be there ? 

4. The roads about the country. Are they attractive ? Are they good for travel ? 
How could they be improved ? 

5. Of the homes you can see, which is most attractive ? Why? 

6. On the return trip, look for the best garden, or other preconsidered feature. 

7. Speak of unsightly advertisements along the way. What should be done with 
them? 

8. Where are the best views to be had in the neighborhood ? Which windows of 
the school house open to the best views ? 

Note. — This lesson should be followed by composition work. Read some simple 
description of scenery in verse. Encourage children to describe in verse the scenery 
about their school. 

IV. FIFTH GRADE: A BROOK 

Purpose of the lesson. — To lead the pupil to make definite, accurate observations on 
some natural feature in his region, that he may lay the foundation for acquiring an intel- 
ligent interest in his environment. A brook is here suggested for this series of lessons, 
but other topics may be as valuable: a hill, a mountain, a country road, a swamp, or 
other strong natural feature. 

The lesson. — There are many ways in which the lessons on a brook may be handled 
successfully for pupils in the fifth grade. As one means of keeping up an active and con- 
tinued interest, the following may be suggested : Start a brook book for the work of the 



34 



NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION 



year. Have the pupils feel that in this book there will be kept a record of the brook as 
they come to know it in 1905-6. The book will be a part of the school property. Each 
succeeding class will be asked to keep a similar record so that changes may be observed, 
and in time an interesting history of this outdoor playfellow may be compiled. The 
pupils should feel the importance of accuracy in all their observations, for historv is value- 
less if inaccurate. 

As to the kind of book used, each teacher will have some original plan. It may be 
well for the children to make it of manilla paper in scrap book form, in Avhich their com- 
positions and observations from time to time may be pasted. Toward the end of the year, 
perhaps on Arbor Day, some of the best facts may be compiled and read before the school 
during one of the public exercises. Have a list kept of the number of good observations 
made by each pupil, and, at the end of the year, find out who has been the most active 
and patient in his out-door study. 

The study of the brook will furnish a motive for the making of a school museum. 
This museum should become a regular part of the property of the school, as much as books 
and pictures are. A cupboard can be used for the museum, and the smaller items of the 
collection may be kept in boxes. If no cupboard is available, shelves may be placed in the 
corners of the room. 

Following are suggestions for the preparation of the history of the brook: 

1. If the brook is large, let the territory be marked that the pupils think it will be 
possible to study. Then have the pupils describe the area that is chosen, in order to get 
a mental picture of it in its entirety. 

2. Exact measurements should be made and recorded. Large numbers in the 
field cannot do successful work. It may be well to divide the class into sections for mak- 
ing the measurements. If ten boys were sent out on Monday and ten girls on Tuesday, 
a comparison of the measurements may lead to interesting discussions as to accuracy, etc. 

3. Let a list be made of the tree bushes and other plants along the margin, and of 
the water plants in the brook. If the children do not know the names of the plants, they 
can describe them briefly. They will soon want to know the names and there will be 
some way to find out. The important thing is that the children should know the plants. 

4. There should be also a list of the animal life found in the brook: the fishes, the 
water insects, etc.; also the animal life living along its banks — salamanders, perhaps, or 
muskrats, or the evidences of these animals. 

5. The pupils in this grade should make a map of the brook, locating anything of 
importance along the bank; the place where the plane-tree stands; the place where the 
stranger may seek the pussy-willow; and the place where little patches of water-cresses 
grow. 

6. What farms or homes lie along the brook ? A few words of interest regarding 
the homes will be of value in the history of the brookside. 

7. Whenever a new point of interest is observed by one of the pupils, let him write 
it on a slip of paper with his name and drop it into a box on the teacher's desk. At the 
end of the month, the best observations can be selected for the brook book. A new plant, 
a fallen tree, a stone moved by the ice, a bird that stopped for a drink, will be subjects 
for notes. 

8. An effort should be made to discover what this brook means to its adjacent 
country. How large a country does it drain ? Does it dry up in summer ? What is its 
source ? Its mouth ? Has it tributaries ? Does it drain merely the surface water, or is 
it fed by springs ? Is it quickly affected by rains ? Does it furnish any water-power, 
and what ? Used for irrigation ? For watering stock ? 

9. Suggestions should be left for future observations by the class in 1906-07. Com- 
pare the plant life with that of the previous year. What new plants have entered ? What 
old plants have disappeared ? What difference in the animal life, what changes in the 
homes along the banks, etc. ? Correct and complete the map from year to year. 



INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION IN RURAL SCHOOLS 35 

ILLUSTRATIVE LESSONS ON ANIMALS 

I. FIRST grade: the chick 

Purpose 0} the lesson. — To teach the child to think about a bird's life and form. 

The lesson. — The young child is far more interested in what a bird does and how 
it does it than in knowing the names of kinds of birds. For beginning bird study, there 
is no better object than the chick — it may be studied at home or in the schoolroom— 
and by comparing the habits and form of the chick with those of familiar birds, the child 
will begin bird study with the right sort of understanding and mental attitude. The 
canary is also a good subject for first-grade work. 

In the following lesson the children should study the chick itself and should be led 
by the teacher to see the points covered by the questions. The ideal way for conducting 
this lesson is to have a chick in the schoolroom for three or four days, and allow the children 
to observe it during recess. A chick a day or two old is best for this. If the teacher choose, 
it may be well to begin the study with a talk about the egg, its shape, its color and its 
contents. The teacher should tell that the function of parts of the contents of the egg 
is to nourish the chick as it grows within the egg. This may be compared with the meat 
of chestnuts or walnuts or the starchy part of the grain of a kernel of corn. A little talk 
may be given also about the way the hen makes her nest and the length of time required 
for incubation. 

What is the color of the chick above and below ? What markings has it ? Can you 
tell by the color of the chick what will be its color when it is grown ? 

What is the chick covered with ? How does this covering differ from that of the hen ? 

How does the young chick get its food ? How does the young robin get its food ? 

Describe the eye of the chick; can it see straight ahead as we do ? Why does it turn 
its head to one side and then the other when it looks at you ? Is this the way the young 
robin sees ? 

What does the chick eat, and where does it get its food ? 

Describe the beak and tell how it is adapted to collect the food. 

Does the chick chew its food before swallowing it ? Why ? 

How does the chick drink ? Why does it drink this way ? 

Where are the chick's ears ? Does it learn readily certain sounds so that it comes 
to its food when you call ? 

What sounds does the old hen make which the chickens obey ? 

Can the chicken smell ? What makes you think so ? 

Can you see the beginning of the comb ? What is the comb ? 

Describe the chicken's- foot and leg. Describe the toes. Which is the longest ? 
Make a picture of a chicken's track. 

What are the chick's feet used for beside to walk on ? Does the chick or hen walk 
hop, or waddle when it goes rapidly ? 

Can the chick fly ? Has it any wings ? Can the hen fly like the robin or the crow ? 
How far can a hen fly ? Why can she not fly farther ? Why does she not need to fly at 
all ? Compare the size of the hen's wings with her body, and the size of the robin's or 
sparrow's wings with its body to answer this question. 

Where will the young chick put its head while sleeping after it is grown up ? Why 
does it not do that now ? 

Did the chick get out of the egg, by its own exertion, or did the hen assist it ? 

Look at the bill of the chick less than a week old and note the little tooth on the tip 
of the upper part of the beak. What is this for ? Is it present on older chickens ? 

II. SECOND GRADE: THE ROBIN 

Purpose of the lesson. — -To lead the child to understand the relation of the bird to the 
season; to observe its food and the reasons for its migration; the time and manner of build- 
ing nests and the care given to the young. 



36 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION 

The lesson. — The robin is chosen for this lesson, as in most localities of the eastern 
and central United States it lives its life before the eyes of all, except perhaps those who 
are in the large cities. Therefore, it is a perfectly familiar object and may be studied 
thoroly by even the younger children. 

The work will naturally begin in the spring, as that is the time when the child is most 
interested in the birds; and the first lesson naturally is on migration. 

Are the robins here all winter ? If not where do they go ? Which direction is 
south ? How is the South different from the North in winter ? Do the robins go south 
because it is warmer ? If so, why do they return when the snow is still on the ground, and 
the cold weather of March is still here ? 

What does the robin eat ? What does it eat when it first comes north ? How long 
after it comes before it can get the earthworms ? Why can it not get the earthworms at 
first ? Bring out from this the fact that the frozen ground may prevent. 

The English sparrow is here all winter. Is the sparrow any less afraid of the cold 
than the robin ? Bring out the fact that the robin's food differs from the food of these 
other birds. 

How many colors are there on the robin ? What is the color of its breast ; top of 
head; back; wings; tail; legs; beak; the border around its eyes? Is there any white 
on the robin ? 

Where does the robin stay when not on the ground ? When on the ground, what is 
it doing ? When hunting for earthworms, dow does it act ? Bring out the fact that it 
runs a little distance and stops, and goes a little distance again, as if listening to find 
whether the worms are working near the surface. How does it pull earthworms out of 
the ground ? Do the robins that come first have breasts of the same color as those that 
come later ? Why ? 

What is the robin's song ? Where does the robin sit when it sings ? Does it ever 
sing on the ground ? What other notes does it make beside song ? Do the robins "talk" 
to each other ? 

Where does the robin build its nest ? What material does it use ? Do the father and 
mother bird both build the nest? What is the lining of the robin's nest? What is the 
color of the robin's egg ? Do the father and mother bird take turns in sitting on the 
eggs ? How long after the eggs are laid before they hatch ? Does the little robin when 
first hatched look like its parents ? It is blind and it stays in the nest and it has no feathers, 
while the little chick can see from the first and is covered with feathers. How is the young 
robin fed ? How is it kept warm ? Do both the father and mother bird feed the young 
robins ? How do the young birds act when the old ones come to the nest ? Is the robin's 
nest kept clean ? When the young robins first come out of the nest how do they act ? 
How does the breast of the young robin differ in color from that of the parent ? What 
will become of the young robin next October ? If it goes south, how will it know how 
to get there ? 

in. third grade: feathers 

Purpose of the lesson. — To teach the child what the plumage of birds is, and what 
relation it bears to the fife and actions of birds. 

The lesson. — This is an excellent lesson for the third grade after the pupils have 
learned something of the peculiarities of bird life through the study of the chicken and 
robin. First, choose a feather from the tail of a fowl, and an ostrich or peacock feather, 
and elicit the likenesses and differences by observations, somewhat according to the follow- 
ing plan: 

How are these feathers alike ? Bring out in this that there is a central part, the quill 
or shaft, and from each side of both are the barbs; that along each side of the barb is a 
little fringe made up of smaller divisions which are called barbels. The names of these 
divisions should be learned entirely incidentally to the study of the feather itself, and not 
committed to memory as a lesson. 



INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION IN RURAL SCHOOLS 37 

The differences in the feathers may be brought out in the following questions : Are 
the barbs as close together on the ostrich or peacock feather as on the feather of the 
hen ? Are they the same color ? Are they the same texture ? Can you suggest a reason 
for this difference in form, color, and texture ? Bring out in this that the close web of 
the tail feather of the fowl makes the tail strong and useful as a rudder during flight, 
while the tail feathers of the peacock are purely ornamental and are a hindrance to the 
flight of the bird. After the parts of the feather have been mastered, then give a lesson 
from the domestic fowl, choosing a feather from the breast, the wing and the tail. 

Breast Feather: Have the pupils describe its shape and appearance, noting par- 
ticularly that the barbs extend almost to the base of the quill. Are the barbs near the 
base of the feather the same in appearance as those at the tip ? Bring out the fact that 
the barbs near the base are fluffy and soft, while those at the tip are stiff and of firm web. 
Which part of the feather lies underneath and which outside ? Bring out the utility of 
the two parts of this feather, the soft and under part being for the under-clothing of the 
bird, and the stiff or outer part being for the outer garments. 

Wing Feather : Are the barbs on one side as long as they are on the other ? Do 
the longer barbs belong to the outside or front side of the wing, or to the back and inner 
side ? How does this arrangement make the wing strong ? Is the quill of the wing 
feather curved ? Which side is uppermost, the convex or the concave side ? Which way 
does the quill bend the easiest, toward the convex or the concave side ? What does this 
have to do with the flight of the bird ? 

How does the bird fly ? This may be taught in several ways; but it should be clearly 
demonstrated that the bird lifts itself by pushing down with its wings against the air, as 
a boy jumps by pushing down against his vaulting pole. If practicable, the jumping 
from a step to the ground with a spread umbrella will give the child some idea of the way 
that the air resists and holds up the surface pressed down upon it. After this lesson in 
the buoyancy in the air, the wing of a fowl should be examined and the fact that it is con- 
cave and stiff on the down-stroke and convex and limber on the up-stroke should be shown 
so that the child may understand why the bird, when lifting itself by striking the wings 
down, does not push itself down when it lifts its wings up. The wing from a fowl ordi- 
narily used for sweeping and dusting, may be used to show the arrangement of feathers 
in the wing, the way they overlap and the arrangement of the shorter feathers. 

Tail Feather : Is the quill of the tail feather curved ? If so, is the curve like that 
of the wing feather ? Are the barbs on either side of the quill equal in length and similar 
in arrangement, or are they one-sided like the wing feather ? 

By watching a bird flying, bring out the fact that the tail when spread acts as a rudder 
in balancing the bird and in guiding flight. Observations should be made on the different 
shapes of the tail of the robin and of the hen, and how the tails of each look when the bird 
is at rest and when it is flying. What other purposes than that of flight do the tail feathers 
serve ? For this study the feathers of the peacock, the chimney-swift and woodpecker 
to show that one of these is for ornamentation and the others for use in bracing the bird 
up against the surface to which it is clinging. 

General Questions on Feathers: What are the general differences in color of plumage 
between the hen and rooster, the turkey gobbler and the turkey hen, the male and female 
oriole ? Bring out from such questions as these the fact that ornamentation and bright 
feathers make the birds attractive to their mates, and that the dull color of the mother 
bird lessons the danger of detection when on her nest. 

Bring out all of the purposes that feathers serve to birds: for warmth, by the fluffy 
part of the breast feathers and the down; as covering, by the smooth web of the over- 
lapping tips of feathers and that these are made waterproof by oiling; for flight, as the 
feathers are used to strike against the air and lift the bird up; also that some tail feathers 
are used for props in climbing, and finally that there is utility in the beauty of the feathers 
of our brightly plumaged birds. Lest the pupils believe the widespread fallacy that "the 



38 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION 

bird's feathers make them lighter," the feathers should be weighed to show that they are 
no lighter than air; at the same time they should be studied with a view to bringing out 
the fact that they are as light as need be, and at the same time strong. 

The above lesson may be correlated with drawing, both with pencil and in the case 
of the brighter colored feathers with water color. 

IV. FOURTH GRADE: ECOLOGY 

Purpose of the lesson. — To relate bird life to its environment and also to the life of 
the pupil. 

The lesson. — A few of the common birds that are of greatest economical importance 
should be studied: the chickadee, the oriole, the blue bird, the phcebe, and the king bird 
are good subjects. The pupil should become familiar with the appearance of each. In 
order to do this, he should be able to describe the bird ; this is an excellent lesson in careful 
observation. First, the pupils should be able to determine the size of a bird; this he can 
do by comparing it with the robin or the English sparrow. Second, the color in general, 
that is, gray, blue or brown. Third, the colors of the different parts of the bird: the 
color of the breast, throat, top of the head, eye markings, top of the back, wings, tail, and 
under parts. An excellent way to fix such markings in the mind is to have an outline of 
the bird, and in the drawing lesson let him fill in the colors where they belong. Of course 
it would be far more desirable to have the pupil sketch the outline also. The pupil should 
endeavor to determine whether these colors and markings have any special relation to the 
welfare of the bird; whether they afford protection from enemies or otherwise help to 
adapt the bird to its environment. 

After the color is fixed in the pupil's mind, the question of the food of birds should be 
discussed. This will have to be largely an information lesson on the part of the teacher, 
but correlated with this information, the pupils should make observations on how the bird 
gets its food. The chickadee hunts over the twigs and buds of trees for insect eggs; the 
blue-birds get much of their food on the ground by taking cutworms, locusts, crickets and 
grasshoppers; the oriole hunts for caterpillars on the leaves; the kingbird and phcebe 
perch in some open place and dart into the air after flies and beetles. All this may be 
observed by the child of any town or country, except the large cities. 

An excellent way to impress on the pupil'the economic importance of birds is to get 
from the Department of Agriculture, Washington, the bulletin on the food of nestling 
birds, and have the pupils make drawings similar to those on Plates 50 and 51, showing 
diagrammatically the proportion of the different insects used by common birds for food. 

If the teacher desires, this line of inquiry may be further developed by considering 
the habits and food of crows, hawks, owls; also of pugnacious and destructive birds, as 
English sparrow and shrike. 

Bird Houses: With the knowledge that the birds are beneficial, there comes to the 
child the natural desire to protect them and make them comfortable. If the pupils have 
manual training, let them make bird houses as a part of their work; if not, encourage 
them to make these houses at home and put them in the trees or on buildings nearby, 
where their occupants may be watched. Bluebirds and martins are most desirable tenants 
for these houses. A study should also be made of the ways of making birds comfortable, 
as follows: Methods of keeping the cats from taking birds and their nestlings; feeding 
the winter birds with suet, and thus attracting them to the orchards where they will destroy 
insects in their winter quarters; giving special attention to the protection of nests during 
the nesting season; placing pans of fresh water where the birds will find it; the planting 
of trees and shrubs which the birds find attractive for protection, nesting, and food. 

V. FIFTH GRADE: A BIRD GROUP 

Purpose of the lesson. — (1) To familiarize the pupil with a definite group or class of 
birds. (2) To train the powers of critical discrimination, by studying objects that are 
very similar. 



INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION IN RURAL SCHOOLS 39 

The lesson {woodpeckers). — By the time the pupil has reached the fifth grade, he should 
have made many observations on the form, appearance and habits of the common birds. 
It is time, therefore, that he becomes interested in the kinds of birds of the region. In 
order to do this, it is best to consider one group at a time and learn all the common species 
belonging to it. Thus the eye becomes trained to look for similarities in habits, in flight 
and in appearance ; and after the pupil comes to know three woodpeckers or three thrushes 
or three sparrows, he knows better what to look for in completing his knowledge of the 
group. Of all the groups, perhaps none is more interesting or offers better opportunities 
for study than the woodpeckers. These birds are of the utmost importance economically; 
they also have striking modifications of form and are noticeable birds wherever they may be. 

The work should preferably be begun in the winter. In most localities, by placing 
suet upon the trees, the downy woodpecker may be called within sight of the windows 
and its habits studied. A field note-book may be started with this lesson on the downy 
woodpecker. 

If possible, the note-book should show sketches of the different birds studied, and 
these sketches may be made in color although this is not strictly necessary. While studying 
the woodpeckers, comparison should be made between them and the nuthatches. 

The pupil should always endeavor to determine the general life story of each of the 
kinds: resident or migrant; if migrant, when they arrive and when they leave; what 
places they frequent, woods, open fields, yards, swamps, etc.; where they rest, kind of 
rest; how many eggs and description of them; plumage of young birds; song or notes; 
and other field observations. 

Downy and Hairy Woodpeckers 

1. What is the general form, size and appearance of the downy woodpecker ? 

2. What is the color of the downy woodpecker above? Below? Top of its head, 
its throat and breast ? 

3. The difference in color between the male and female. 

4. How does the downy go up a tree ? Explain the use of the feet and the tail in 
the downy's climbing. Note the shape of the tail feather of the downy and compare it 
with that of any other bird. Note the arrangement of the toes, and how they assist the 
downy in clinging to the bark. 

5 . How does the downy go down a tree trunk ? Does it ever go head first ? 

6. Why does the downy climb trees ? What does it use its beak for ? Is its beak 
shaped for this purpose ? How does the downy manage its head to make its blows forceful ? 

7. Has the downy any song ? Describe its note. 

8. Note the woodpecker drumming. What is the drum and how and when does it 
use it ? What is the drumming for ? 

0. The downy stays in the North all winter. Why is it, therefore, of the greatest 
importance to the orchardists and farmers ? 

10. Another woodpecker remains in the North all winter; it resembles the downy 
very much except that it is about one-third larger. This is the hairy woodpecker. The 
pupils should be encouraged to look for this bird during the winter months. 

The Sapsucker 
The next woodpecker to study may be the sapsucker. While this bird winters in 
our southern states, it is a migrant in April and September in New York and New Eng- 
land. The sapsucker should be described in comparison with the downy. 

1. .General form, size, and appearance. 

2. Color of back, top of head, throat, and breast of male and female. 

3. Are its habits like those of the downy ? Does it hunt for insects like the downy ? 
(Special stress should be laid upon the fact that the sapsucker is largely an insect-eating 
bird and that its habit of sap drinking is incidental). 



4Q 



NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION 



4. Note the holes made by the sapsucker. Are they in rows ? If so, do they reach 
clear around the tree ? 

5. Would the sapsucker kill the tree unless the holes completely encircled the tree? 
If not, why? 

6. In what kinds of trees have you found the sapsucker holes ? What does he make 
these holes for? 

The Redhead Woodpecker 

The next woodpecker will probably be the redhead, as this is very striking in appear- 
ance and most children know it by sight. 

1. General form, size, and appearance. 

2. Make a careful description of the colors of the redhead. Compare it with the 
downy. Is the redhead seen on trees as much as the downy ? 

3. Does it eat fruits or nuts? Does it stay with us all winter? If so, what does it 
live upon ? 

4. What does it use for a drum ? 

The Flicker 
The flicker, is one of the most noticeable of the woodpeckers, and is everywhere 
common in most localities during the spring and summer months. 

1. Describe the nicker. Compare color and size with that of the downy. 

2 . What is the difference in color between the male and female ? 

3. What is the flicker's note ? Compare it with the downy's. 

4. Why does the flicker spend much of its time in meadows ? (Bring out the fact 
that the flicker lives largely upon ants.) 

5. When the nicker flies it shows a certain white mark, where is this? Compare it 
with the white that shows on the meadow lark when it flies. 

6. What is there peculiar about the flight of woodpeckers as a whole ? Which is 
especially evident in the flight of the flickers ? 

7. Which of all the woodpeckers are the most beneficial to man ? 

ILLUSTRATIVE LESSON ON PLANTS: PARTICULAR PLANTS AND PARTS OF 

PLANTS 

I. SECOND grade: leaves 

Purpose of the lesson. — (1) To teach the child some of the ways in which leaves are 
related to the remainder of the plant. (2) To draw out the fact that there is great differ- 
ence or variation in leaves, and thereby to lead on later to the fact of variation in general. 
(3) To interest the pupil in form and color. 

The lesson. — If possible, make the observations on leaves that are still on the plant. 
A window plant may answer, but it is better to have the first observations made in the 
open. Do leaves have any relation to light ? Are they borne near the ends of the twigs ? 
Where do you find the biggest leaves ? Are the stalks all of equal length ? Why ? In 
the window, note how the leaves turn toward the light. Do the leaves change color where 
there is little light ? 

After the study of leaves in the fall comes the effect of frost on vegetation and the 
pupils should discover for themselves that when the plant or tree dies there are no leaves 
left on it. This lesson should be taught in many forms, so that the child will realize that 
leaves are an important part of the life of the plant. 

To relate the work to the life of the tree, competition may be started to see whether 
any pupil could find two leaves alike on any tree. This may be done after the leaves 
have fallen, so that the pupils may gather leaves from the ground. This will be excellent 
exercise in training the children to close observation. 

A Study of Leaf Form : The teacher might bring into the school room the leaves of 
cabbage, sweet peas, nasturtiums, maple, and pine. Observation lessons should be given 



INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION IN RURAL SCHOOLS 41 

on each on succeeding days, and in each case the leaf should be connected in the child's 
mind with the plant on which it grows. At the end the lesson should be unified by 
teaching the fact that these are all leaves altho they are very different. 

Study of Color with Form : Let the children bring to school leaves of all sorts, which 
have autumn tints. They will be specially interested in picking up the bright-colored 
leaves that fall from the roadside trees. 

Let them classify the leaves according to color, so as to train the eye to discriminate 
the tints and color values. 

Let them classify leaves according to form, selecting those which resemble each other. 

Ask them to tell in what respects they resemble each other in this way, incidentally 
calling attention to the margin, the veins, and the petiole. 

Incidentally teach the names of the leaves of the most common trees by mentioning 
that certain noticeable leaves are the maple or oak or elm, etc. The children will quickly 
pick up these names by themselves if thus taught, and the knowledge will help them 
later on. 

Let each child choose a leaf for himself and draw it. The drawing may be done by 
placing the leaf flat on paper and outlining it with a pencil, later drawing in the veins, 
or the drawing may be made with colored crayon, free hand. The pupils should be allowed 
to please themselves in this matter, as it is not a drawing lesson, but a lesson on form and 
color. 

Let the pupils choose paper of a color similar to that of the leaf, and cut the leaf 
from it' during "busy work." 

Let each pupil choose four leaves of maple or oak as nearly alike as possible and press 
them in his book, and later arrange them on a card in some symmetrical design. This 
may be done while the leaves are fresh, and the card thus arranged may be pressed and 
thus preserved. If possible, have these leaves teach some life-lesson — that no two are 
alike, that they come from different trees or from different parts of a tree, from shade 
or sun, etc. 

II. THIRD GRADE: HEPATICA 

Purpose 0} the lesson. — (1) To put the pupil into first-hand relation with some plant 
of which he is fond. (2) To afford a means of developing exact observation. 

The lesson. — There are several ways of getting acquainted with a plant: one is co 
go a-visiting, and another is to invite the plant to our own home, either as guest on the 
windowsill, or as a tenant of the garden. When we visit the hepatica in its own haunts 
it is usually with the longing for spring, that awakens with the first warm sunshine, and 
which is really one of the subtlest as well as greatest charms of living in a climate that has 
a snowy winter. 

It is usually when the hepatica is our guest that we have a better opportunity for 
studying its form and features. Take up a hepatica root in the fall, pot it and place it 
in a cool cellar until March 1. Then give it light, warmth, and moisture on your table, 
or the window sill, and it will soon begin to grow. Or if we are not sufficiently forehanded 
to get the root in the fall, we can get it during a thaw in February or March. 

Whether in the woods or the schoolhouse, the progress of the hepatica should be 
watched and noted day by day — when and how it first makes a start, its condition at the 
next and the next observation, and thus continuing, if possible, until the seeds are ripe. 
We have a careless habit of forgetting all about plants after their blossoms fade unless 
their fruits or seed are good to eat or good to look at. This is as inconsistent as it would 
be to lose all interest in the farm after the fields were planted. After the flower is gone, 
the plant must mature its seeds and somehow must sow them. If possible, observe the 
hepadca thru the summer and autumn, for we should know what is happening to it every 
month. That is, the complete life-cycle or year-cycle of the plant should be known, 
not merely one epoch in its life. 



42 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION 

It is in early spring, however, that the most interest attaches to the hepatica. Such 
questions as the following may then be considered: 

In what situations are the hepaticas found ? What kind of soil ? 

How does the hepatica prepare for the winter and store up energy for blossoming 
early in the spring ? That is, why does it bloom so very early ? 

How early do you find blossom buds down in the center of the plant ? Did you 
ever look for these buds in the fall ? 

Do the flowers come out of the crown bud ? 

Are the leaves that come up late in the spring as fuzzy when they first appear as those 
that come up early ? Do the leaves last over winter ? 

What are the positions of the flowers at night, in the morning, at midday ? 

Compare the shapes of leaves on different plants; also the color and size of flowers. 

How many petals or flower-leaves has the flower ? 

Try to interest the pupils in waiting to see the seeds and to describe them. 

IV. FOURTH GRADE: WILLOW 

Purpose of the lesson. — (i) To carry the pupil one step farther in its contact with its 
environment, finally leading up to trees. (2) To afford one more means of developing 
the observation. 

The lesson. — Every child may know some kind of willow. He is always interested 
in the "pussy willows," but seldom cares much for these bushes after the "pussies" are 
gone; in fact, in summer he may not recognize the pussy willow. 

First, try to bring the pupil into relation with willows in general and where they 
grow. Is there more than one kind ? Are some of them trees ? 

Then, having found a willow bush, set the pupils at work on it. Let them describe 
it. If in winter, the shapes and colors of the twigs and the buds may be described. Cut 
long, strong twigs and place them in bottles of water in the schoolroom. Change the 
water frequently, and cut a thin slice from the lower end of each twig now and then to 
expose a fresh absorbing surface to the water. Soon the buds will swell. How do they 
change in shape, size, and color ? How many bud-scales ? Describe. Make descrip- 
tions and drawings of the "pussies" as they come out, and thereby be ready for the 
"pussies" when they naturally appear in the'swamps. 

Make an effort to match the leaves with the flowers (or "pussies"). This can be 
done by marking the plant and collecting leaves later in the season. The pupils will 
find the unfolding of the leaves to be quite as interesting as the unfolding of the flowers. 
Some such method of leaf study as is advised for the second grade may be applied to the 
willow. 

It is easy to carry the pupil through observations on willow flowers; to note how the 
pollen is transferred; to watch for the fluffy seeds. The pine-cone willow-gall is also 
a most interesting subject. 

Willows grow readily from cuttings: the pupils will be glad to learn how. 

V. FIFTH GRADE: A TREE (MAPLE) 

Purpose 0} the lesson. — (1) Still further to relate the pupil to the world in which %ie 
lives. (2) To bring the pupil into contact with a tree as a living organism. (3) To 
determine what phenomena are transpiring about the tree and within the limits of its 
parts. (4) To become acquainted with the different parts of a tree. (5) To discover 
what events overtake the tree during the year. (6) To learn or identify the kinds of 
trees. 

The lesson. — It is best to study one tree during an entire year, thus cultivating in the 
pupil the habit of seeing and knowing a tree thoroly. This habit will be of the greatest 
importance in a later study of the trees of the region. To begin the study, the pupils 
should have a note-book which is to be devoted to his observations on the tree for a year. 
This note-book should be large enough so that a leaf may be sketched in it lengthwise. 
A favorite tree in a schoolyard should be chosen for this observation; it is far better if 



INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION IN RURAL SCHOOLS 43 

this tree may be seen from the schoolhouse window. The maple is an excellent subject 
for this first study in the north-eastern states, as it has many interesting features; but 
similar work may be undertaken with any kind of a tree, only it is always best to choose 
a species that is characteristic of the surrounding country. 

Call attention first to the relation of the tree to its environment. If the tree is a 
maple, determine on what soils it usually grows. How abundant are these trees in the 
neighborhood ? In what places are they commonly found ? Do they grow alone or with 
other trees ? Do they grow to be very large ? To what uses do the people put these trees ? 
And similar general questions. 

The Tree Itself, In Foliage 
Work may be begun in September and continue once a week until the leaves all have 
fallen. The work should be done in separate observation lessons, not more than fifteen 
or twenty minutes long, and may be made in the yard with the teacher or by the pupils 
themselves at recess, the teacher each time suggesting lines of observation. These obser- 
vations should cover the following points: 

1. The shape of the tree, i. e., whether its trunk is bare for some distance or whether 
the limbs grow near the ground; whether the branches at the top are spreading or close. 
A sketch should be made in pencil or water color of the general shape of the tree. 

2. Are the leaves borne near the trunk of the tree, or are they borne on the tips of 
the twigs ? Get from this observation the relation of leaves to the light. 

3. Are the leaves opposite each other on the twigs? 

4. What is the color of the leaf above ? Beneath ? Are all the leaves on the tree 
of the same color ? This observation must be made each week, showing the change due 
to the autumn influences. 

5. The approximate length and width of the largest leaf; of the smallest leaf. 

6. Find the greatest variation in shape, if possible, in tw r o leaves of this tree. 

7. Study the leaf-stalk, or petiole, and its relation to the twig. Is the stalk the 
same length on different leaves ? Does the length of the stalk have to do with the leaf 
reaching the light ? Is there a bud in the axil where the stalk joins the twig ? 

8. What sort of an edge has the leaf ? What is the color of the veins of the leaf, 
i. e., does each vein branch off the midrib or do the veins themselves branch ? Do the 
veins extend to the end of the leaf ? If so, do they end in a point on the margin or at the 
base of a notch ? 

9. Careful drawings should be made in the note-book of a normal leaf of the tree 
and its fruit (if the fruit can be had). The changes of the color of the leaves should be 
noted each week, and also when the first leaves begin to fall; also, the effect 6n the leaves 
of the heavy winds and rains, and finally what becomes of the leaves after they have fallen. 

The Tree in Winter 

1. General shape of the whole tree. 

2. Height of bole as compared with height of tree. 

3. Is the bole slender or stocky? Does it continue straight up or divide into great 
branches ? 

4. What sort of bark has it, rough or smooth ? If rough, are the ridges or sutures 
far apart or close together ? Do they intersect or are they distinct and vertical ? 

5. What is the color of the bark and what blotches or marks are there on it ? 

6. Are the lower branches very large ? Does the bark on them resemble that on the 
trunk ? 

7. At what angle do the branches in general stand to the trunk ? 

8. Are there many large branches ? 

9. Where is the spray borne, along the branches or at the tips? ("Spray" is a 
term used for the mass of twigs because they resemble the spray of a fountain.) Study 



44 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION 

the spray; is it coarse or fine ? Does it stand erect or droop ? What is its color ? 

10. Make a drawing of the tree in pencil, showing it bare of leaves. Draw a twig 
with buds. 

The Tree in Early Spring 

About the last of March, bring in twigs from the trees, to be kept in a warm room 
and in the sunshine. Place the twigs in water and watch the opening of the leaves. 
Later, when the leaves open on the trees, note the following: 

i. How the leaves are folded, as shown by the wrinkles in them, as they come from 
the bud. The falling of the bud-scales. The color of the leaves when they first come out, 
and how long it takes to change them to green. The leaf should be sketched in a note- 
book in all its stages of development. 

2. The flowers of the tree should be studied, noting the shape and color, and week 
by week the development of the flower into the seed should be noted. 

3. During the spring the shade cast by the tree should be studied, noting how it grows 
more dense; also the extreme points reached by the shade night and morning should be 
marked and noted. 

4. In connection with the shade, the arrangement of the leaves should be again 
studied, noting that the leaves in their efforts to reach the light make a complete canopy. 
A water-color sketch of the tree in its June dress should be made, showing the shadow 
which it casts, and the shape of the shadows in the top indicating the position and direc- 
tion of the branches. 

The Utility 0} the Tree {Maple Sugar Making) 

1. Is the tree tapped on all sides? If so, why? 

2. How deep must the spiles be driven successfully to draw off the sap ? Would 
you tap a tree directly above or at the same spot tapped last year; or would you place two 
spiles one above the other ? Give reasons. 

3. Why does the sap flow freer on warm days after cold nights ? 

4. Is the sap of which we make sugar going up or down ? 

5. How does the sugar come to be in the sap ? 

6. Why is the sugar made during the "first run " better than that which is made later ? 
Why cannot you make sugar in the summer ? 

7. Does it injure trees to tap them ? 

8. Do the holes made in earlier years become farther apart as the tree grows ? 

9. What other tree besides the sugar maple gives sweet sap ? 

10. What animals, birds and insects are often seen in the woods during sugar making 
time ? 

1 1 . Study the tracks of the animals on the snow in the woods ; make pictures of them 
and tell what animals made them. 



AGRICULTURE IN SCHOOL YEARS 6 TO 8 

After the explicit nature study ceases with the fifth grade, the pupil in the 
rural school may then be taken through the elements of agriculture in the 
sixth, seventh, and eighth grades. The work in these three grades should 
really be nature study, but agricultural subjects are the means. Some will 
prefer to call it nature study rather than agriculture. Its purpose is not so 
much to teach definite science as to bring the pupil into relation with the 
objects and affairs that are concerned with the agriculture of his region. 



INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION IN RURAL SCHOOLS 45 

When the pupil has completed his nature study in the fifth grade, he should 
have a good knowledge of the physiography of his region, and of the common 
animals and plants. He will then be able to carry his inquiries into the more 
specific field of the agricultural practice and operations. When he has com- 
pleted his eighth year, he should have a well developed sympathy with agri- 
cultural affairs and he should have a broad, general view of them. Entering 
the high school, he will then be able to take up some of the subjects in their 
distinctly scientific phases. If the high school has no adequate course in biol- 
ogy, then the student can be given a good drill in botany and zoology with 
particular reference to its agricultural relation, and this might be called "agri- 
culture;" but it would be better if the student could have his fundamental 
training in biology in the first year of his high school and let him take his 
agricultural science thereafter. The agricultural work in the high school 
should have a distinctly scientific value. It should be such as would count 
towards science entrance requirements in case the student should desire to 
enter an agricultural college. 

If the agricultural work in the grammar grades is to be of the nature-study 
kind and not of the science kind, it can then cover a somewhat wide range. 
In these grades, the pupils should not be put into "agronomy," "economics," 
and other technical subjects, but he should be brought into relation with his 
agricultural environment.. 

The following classification of subjects may be helpful as expressing the 
general judgment of the committee; but the value of the work will depend 
entirely upon the way it is taught. It is the judgment of the committee that 
in these grades (sixth to eighth) the work should not be taken up for the 
scientific point of view. However, all this work, as well as nature-study 
work preceding it, should be taken up primarily for its scholarship value. 

The committee does not desire to recommend work for the specific grades 
or parts of grades, but it believes that the following subjects can well be 
covered in grades from sixth to eighth inclusive, and preferably in the approx- 
imate order in which they are given. 

FIRST HALF YEAR: THE AFFAIRS OF AGRICULTURE 

The place that the farm occupies as a part of the community life. What the farmer's 
business is; what he does; what he sells; how he spends his year. 

What is the nature or kind of agriculture of the particular region. 

What outside help the farmer has; good roads; telephones, rural free delivery; 
experiment stations; colleges; markets. Gather rough statistics from the farmers of the 
neighborhood. Write up the farms of the district as to history, size of buildings, etc. 

SECOND HALF YEAR: THE SOIL 

Here may be introduced many experiments as to the physical conditions and texture 
of the soil. Soils of the neighborhood may be gathered and classified. 

Let the pupil classify the soils on his own farm and make a chart as to the soil dis- 
tribution. 

General ways in which the soil is improved as to plowing, tilling, rolling, cover- 
cropping, fertilizing, and the like. 



46 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION 



SECOND YEAR: FARMING SCHEMES AND CROPS 

The general lay out of the farm; rotation schemes and mapping. Farm crops; 
the crops or their products themselves to be studied, sometimes in the school room. Ears 
of corn, for example, may be studied and "judged" as a part of the school exercises. 
The same may be done with potatoes, grains, and fruits. 

The crops to be studied as they are grown in the community; let each child report 
on the crops and the cropping schemes of his own farm. 

third year: animals 

What animals are a part of the farm enterprise, and why. 

What relation these animals bear to rotation of crops or other farming schemes. 
Relation they bear to the fertility of the land. Relative importance of different kinds of 
animals and why they are raised. 

Some general studies of the different breeds of animals and also "points" of specific 
animals and something of the judging of animals. Some observations may be made on 
feeding and the like. 

A good text-book treating in a simple way the soil and the plant and animal life of 
the farm may be used with profit to supplement the actual study of the things themselves. 

Supplementary reading matter, treating country-life subjects, may well be used in 
connection with this work. 

As the demand for instruction in the elements of agriculture in the rural 
schools is more general than that for any other phase of industrial education, 
some disappointment may be felt that the committee has not presented a 
detailed course in this subject, especially adapted to the needs of the district 
school. This matter was carefully considered by the committee. It seemed 
evident that to attempt anything in the way of a detailed course of study 
would, at best, result in a course adapted to a limited area. Agricultural 
conditions are so varied in this country that work which might be profitably 
undertaken in the schools of one section, would not be well adapted to the 
schools of another section. For this reason the committee adopted a general 
rather than a detailed treatment of this subject. 

Courses more or less in detail are being worked out in different states 
adapted to local conditions. The dean of the College of Agriculture in Illinois 
has prepared a course of study in agriculture for Illinois, and the state super- 
intendents of Missouri and Indiana have prepared courses for their states 
respectively. In Wisconsin, for a number of years, a course of study in this 
subject has been published yearly for use in teachers' institutes. The agri- 
cultural college in Minnesota has prepared and issued a valuable bulletin on 
the teaching of agriculture in rural schools. The United States Department 
of Agriculture has issued a most excellent bulletin on this subject — Circular 
No. 60. 



INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION IN THE CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL 

As the self-binder took the place of the reaper, the consolidated school 
seems destined to take the place of the rural one-room school, at least in all 
regions where a good soil supports a large agricultural population. The one- 



INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION IN RURAL SCHOOLS 47 

room school is such a small unit that it cannot afford efficient instructors who 
make teaching a business. The teachers cannot afford to train themselves 
specifically for the general school work, nor for teaching the technical indus- 
tries of the farm and the farm home. A well-nigh universal lack of organi- 
zation of the course of study exists. The small rural school does not arouse 
sufficient interest in parents and pupils to bring about the best work. Rural- 
school houses and grounds show a lack of interest on the part of communities. 
The extended body of thought becoming rapidly available from experiment 
stations and agricultural colleges is not being successfully placed in these 
schools; the teacher lacks preparation and the school lacks equipment. Even 
the introduction of school gardens on the grounds of the rural school, has been 
found most difficult because of a lack of knowledge of gardening on the part 
of the teacher, and because of the absence of persons to care for the garden 
during the long summer vacation. The teachers in the rural schools are not 
well adapted to uniting school instruction in the farm and home industries 
with the work the pupil does under the guidance of his parents, as for instance 
the chores and vacation work during the weekly and longer vacation periods. 

With a consolidated school covering a district of twenty-five or thirty 
square miles, the pupils transported at public expense, two or three acres of 
land, a school building with four rooms, and possibly an additional practice 
room; with the principal trained to teach agriculture, an assistant trained 
to teach home economics, and two other teachers to aid in general instruction, 
the consolidated school would provide instruction under almost ideal condi- 
tions. Half the land could be used for field crops on which instruction could 
be given in farm management, the rotation of crops, the fertilization of the 
soil, the cultivation and handling of crops, methods of handling pastures, etc. 
The other half of the miniature farm should be laid out as a combined campus 
and farmstead. On this, besides ample playgrounds, there should be timber 
plantations showing how to grow shelter belts and wood lots; also orchard, 
small fruit, and vegetable plantations, to show the varieties best to use and the 
methods of cultivation. There could also be minor experiments carried out, 
as with hot beds, grafting, plant breeding, etc. Here the principal could be 
supplied with a dwelling, that he and his family might be a part of the school 
life. There should be sufficient equipment to handle some outdoor instruc- 
tion, also some laboratory equipment for the practice room, both for the 
teacher of agriculture and the teacher of home economics. 

One of the most important possibilities in this kind of schools is joining 
the school instruction, concerning the farm and home, with the actual home 
work of the pupil. The total training which may be given a boy and girl 
with the rural school and the homes thoroly united in building up the char- 
acter, the knowledge, and the skill of the pupils is far greater than it is possible 
to give children in city life. With the well developed consolidated school, 
equipped with teachers able to give instruction not only in the common 
branches but in the common industries and home-making, the normal 



48 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION 

development of the country boy and girl would be much better provided for 
than it now is. 

Teachers who are thus situated in a country school, with equipment and 
surroundings drawing the school work strongly toward country life, would 
be imbued with a spirit which would lead them to find in local environment 
material available for use in many of the general school subjects. The 
teachers would also be in a relation with the practical business and home- 
making of the community, and the school would be permeated with indus- 
trial and country-life subjects. All this would add to, rather than take away 
from, the interest in the general school work. Giving the parents as well as 
the pupils reason for faith that the consolidated school is useful in encouraging 
the farm boys and girls in country life, would lead the pupils to desire to 
remain longer in school, and would induce parents to encourage attendance 
thru a longer period of years, and thus the aggregate of educational results 
for the community would be increased. 

Besides the many things which may be incidentally brought into the school 
work, some such outline of industrial subjects as the following might be added 
to the general course of study for the first eight years: 

FIRST YEAR 

Plants familiar to the pupils. 

SECOND YEAR 

In the reading lessons, use in part themes from nature, the farm, and the home. 
Some general work with animals of the farm and locality. 

THIRD YEAR 

With the reading work, include nature studies. 

Under general exercises, devote some time to home life on the farm. 

FOURTH YEAR 

Include in the reading some country life literature. 

In the geographical lessons, include the geography and distribution of farm products. 

Under general exercises, include some work in agriculture and home economics. 

FIFTH YEAR 

In the reading, include stories of our country, and lessons in agriculture and home 
economics. 

In geography, include that part of physical geography which deals with the work 
done by Nature's forces in preparing soils. 

Under general exercises, include some work in garden and horticultural work. 

SIXTH YEAR 

The reading lessons should include some studies of animal life ; the physiology should 
include the elementary facts of nutrition and food values. 

During this year the boys should be given some general exercises on animals; and 
the girls, in sewing. 

SEVENTH YEAR 

The reading should include matter pertaining to agricultural and household affairs. 

A brief study of field crops could be appropriately given, and some study made of 
co-operative agricultural enterprises, as co-operative creameries, co-operative grain market- 
ing, co-operative drainage, etc. 



INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION IN RURAL SCHOOLS 49 

Sewing should be continued by the girls. 

During this year literary society work should be taken up, that farm boys and girls 
may know how to work in public meetings; to carry on the operations of deliberative 
assemblies, etc., and this work should continue throughout the course. 

EIGHTH YEAR 

The reading on industrial subjects suggested for the seventh year should be continued 
as a part of the reading exercises for this year. 

Some attention should be given, in connection with advanced arithmetic, to land sur- 
veying and farm statistics. 

Further work should be included concerning animals and plants; for boys, exercises 
in wood work, and for girls, exercises in home economics. 

With the addition of a course covering the first and second high school 
years in the consolidated school, considerable more technical instruction may 
be given. 

NINTH YEAR 

In the first half of the year, work may be taken in agricultural botany, drawing of 
farms and farm buildings. 

A text-book treating the elements of agriculture more systematically and more fully 
than the subject has been treated in the special reading suggested for the grades, may be 
studied with profit. 

Sewing may be continued by the girls. 

During the second half of the ninth year, agricultural botany may be continued, 
and a brief course given in farm accounts for both boys and girls. 

A brief course in fences and farm conveniences could be added for the boys, and a 
course in cooking for the girls. 

TENTH YEAR 

During the first half of the tenth year the boys may take up the special subject of 
judging stock and seeds, and exercises in carpentry, while the girls should continue cook- 
ing and the study of foods. 

During the second half of the tenth year both boys and girls might be given the sub- 
ject of agricultural mathematics, while for the boys the practice work of judging stock 
and seeds could be continued, the girls taking work in household management and affairs. 

The work in the county and state agricultural high schools could be made 
to articulate directly with this practical work in agriculture and home-making, 
the students going away from home for only the third and fourth school years. 
Thus not only would the expense be less during the first and second high- 
school years, as the cost of travel and board would be saved, but pupils would 
be constantly developing and applying in their practical work at home the 
things learned in school. All parents would greatly appreciate a school plan 
that would enable them to keep their children at home until well thru the most 
critical period of youth. 

A consolidated school developed along the lines indicated could rapidly 
build up a splendid library of books relating to affairs in country life, and the 
people could be encouraged to use these books and also to build up libraries 
of general and technical literature in the country homes. The school would 
become a center for meetings and for general information, as well as a source 
of great inspiration thru the school work. 



S o NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION 

A well-developed, consolidated school plan would give new and larger 
educational and social units for our farm communities. Co-operative effort 
and enterprises would be greatly encouraged and developed and by the larger 
unit. For these schools of larger units, the state and county could provide 
many things of value to the pupils. Some technical subjects might be given 
by teachers travelling from school to school. Farm organizations, such as 
the grange, farmers' clubs, and farmers' institutes, etc., would find in these 
school buildings suitable meeting places where much valuable educational 
work could be carried on. 



INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION IN THE RURAL HIGH SCHOOL 

In this class of schools which includes the village high school already 
mentioned, the industrial subjects recommended for the ninth and tenth 
years of the consolidated school should be offered. This work may be pre- 
ceded or accompained by such portions of the subjects suggested for the 
seventh and eighth grades of the consolidated school as may seem desirable; 
and may be supplemented by work selected from the courses for agricultural 
high schools, as given in Appendix A and Appendix B. 



HOW TO MAKE A PLACE FOR THE INDUSTRIAL PHASE OF 
EDUCATION IN RURAL SCHOOLS 

Any proposition for the introduction of a new phase of educational effort 
into the work of the schools is met at the outset with objections. The poor 
results in the teaching of the common branches, too often apparent, are given 
as good and sufficient reasons why no other work should be attempted. It is 
assumed that the poor quality of these results is due to lack of time in the 
school and that, therefore, there is no time for anything else. 

The other objection is that the course of study is now overcrowded and 
that in the rural district schools especially, the variety and number of classes 
renders it impossible to organize and instruct additional classes in new subjects. 

As to the first objection, it may be said that the poor results in the teaching 
of the common branches is not due to lack of time on the part of pupils, so 
much as to poor teaching and lack of proper organization. 

The second objection is likewise not well founded, because the overcrowd- 
ing of the course is not due to the number of subjects, but to the attempt to 
teach too many things in these subjects which are not worth the teaching. 

The subject matter in the common school course of study needs a critical 
revision, not so much with the idea of eliminating entire subjects as for the 
purpose of cutting out matter now found in most text-books in the treatment 
of these subjects, and upon which much time is spent in the school without 
profit to the pupils. 



INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION IN RURAL SCHOOLS 51 

Text-books are made to sell; most publishers recognize that certain detail 
of treatment of a subject is regarded as of vital importance by one super- 
intendent while another regards it as utterly without value. The argument 
of the publisher from the commercial standpoint is that if this detail is supplied, 
it will meet the requirements of the one, and can be omitted by the other, and 
thus the book may be accepted by both. 

In the rural schools the supervision is necessarily lacking in effectiveness, 
and the teachers not feeling themselves competent to make proper elimina- 
tions, undertake to teach everything in the book, which was made to include 
everything which anybody might wish to teach. 

In determining what matter may be eliminated with a positive gain to 
pupils, the following tests should be applied: 

Has it a value as usable knowledge sufficient to warrant its retention ? 

Is there other matter of greater value as usable knowledge not now taught, 
but which can be taught if substituted for that of less value ? 

If its value as usable knowledge is not sufficient to warrant its retention 
on that ground, has it a value for training which will justify the expenditure 
of the time and effort essential for its mastery ? 

Is there other matter, of equal or greater value as knowledge but with a 
greater value for training, which can be put in its place and for which there 
is no time unless it be put in that place ? 

In no case is there any justification for the retention of any matter in the 
course of study, whatever its knowledge and training value, if its retention 
prevents the introduction of other matter having a greater knowledge value 
and an equal or greater training value. 

It is believed that the application of these tests would result in such a 
pruning of subject matter in the present course of study, and such a recogni- 
tion of the knowledge and training value of industrial subjects, as would give 
them their proper place in the course of study without overcrowding it. 

It is recognized that this is not work which can be done properly by inex- 
perienced teachers. If properly done at all, it must be by those competent 
to judge of the needs of the child, the educational values of subject matter, 
and the limitations of teachers. 

The revision of the course of study on the lines here suggested would be 
productive of results of the highest value to the common schools. 

It is not necessary, however, to wait until this is accomplished before 
beginning the introduction of instruction in industrial subjects. Some time 
can be found for this work even under existing conditions. Such instruction 
may be given once or twice a week in place of other subjects on the program, 
omitting the other subjects on those days without material loss, especially 
if the new subjects are given in the following order: The first exercise to be 
given during the first half hour of the day, the second exercise during the 
second half hour of another day, the third exercise during the third half hour 
of the next day on which it comes, and so on, until in a number of weeks each 



52 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION 

half hour in the day has been used for one of these exercises. The omission 
of the regular recitation of any half hour in the regular program once in two 
or three weeks will not interfere with the progress of the pupils in the regular 
subjects of the course. 

The period for general exercises may properly be employed occasionally 
for the new line of work. 

If the teacher succeeds in interesting pupils in the industrial subject under 
consideration, much work may be secured outside of, the regular school hours. 



SECONDARY SCHOOLS OF AGRICULTURE AND DOMESTIC 
ECONOMY IN RURAL COMMUNITIES 

The education which the country boy and girl ought to receive should 
put them in touch with their environment, and should awaken an intelligent 
interest in the things immediately about them, and make clear to them the 
possibilities for intellectual activity and development for the individual who 
lives in the country. It should make clear to them the necessity for something 
more than hard physical labor for success upon the farm. It should make 
evident to them that a trained intelligence brought to bear upon the problems 
of a farm life is a necessity for the highest success, and that when so brought to 
bear, if coupled with industry and economy, will produce financial returns 
secured by only a small proportion of those who find their life work in the cities. 

If these premises are correct, then it follows that the country boy and girl 
should have opportunities in schools open to them and which they are able 
to attend, for securing a more intimate knowledge of the things with which 
they are likely to be concerned in after life than is now afforded. They have 
a right not only to this knowledge but to the kind of training necessarily 
required in securing it. It is most important to them also that thru this 
knowledge and training there shall come the development of a new set of 
interests which under present conditions rarely exist. 

To assume that the country boys, 95 per cent, of whom secure in the 
district schools all the education which they receive in any school, should be 
compelled to enter upon their life work with little or no knowledge of the plant 
and animal life about them with which they will have to deal, of the quality 
and composition of the soil from which they are to secure their livelihood, 
with no appreciation of the fact that successful agriculture demands the 
application of a wider range of scientific principles than any other vocation, 
with no knowledge of the facts and principles of science applicable to agri- 
culture and with no interest in them, with no appreciation of the fact that 
modern industrial development, with its improved means of transportation 
and communication, makes the problem of competition as vital a one for the 
farmer as for the merchant and manufacturer, and without the training which 
accompanies the acquisition of these kinds of knowledge, is to deprive them 



INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION IN RURAL SCHOOLS ' 53 

of the very things which are essential to success in their life work, as measured 
not only from a financial standpoint, but from the standpoint of the develop- 
ment of the individual. 

To say that the country girls, who secure in the district schools all the 
education which they receive in any school, should be compelled to enter 
upon their life work with little or no knowledge of those things which are 
essential for the proper administration of a home and the rearing of chil- 
dren, and without the training involved in securing and applying such 
knowledge of the art of home-making as may be systematically taught, is 
to deny them the essentials for the highest success in their life work. 

No one who knows anything of the teaching in the country schools will 
contend for a moment that the pupils in those schools are securing this knowl- 
edge and training. No one who knows the facts as to the age at which a 
majority of the pupils leave even the district schools to begin work, will claim 
that all that ought to be done for them can possibly be done under existing 
conditions in those schools. This is true because the comprehension of the 
basic facts and scientific principles which it is necessary to know and apply 
in successful farming and in the work of the girl in the home, cannot be secured 
at the early age at which most pupils leave these schools. 

Practically the only opportunity afforded for the country boy to secure 
any working knowledge of the scientific basis of agriculture, or for the country 
girl to secure any systematic training in the art of home-making, outside the 
hard school of experience, is that given in the agricultural colleges. These 
institutions are doing a grand work, not only in the development of the young 
men and v/omen who attend them, but for the material development of the 
country as a whole. But at the present time, the number of students attend- 
ing any one of these institutions in any state is only a small fraction of those 
who ought to have other opportunities for industrial education than are now 
open to them or can be opened to them in the elementary schools. If every 
agricultural college in the land were filled to its utmost capacity, the number 
of students in attendance would still be only a small fraction of one per cent, 
of the great number of country boys and girls who receive no education beyond 
that which the district schools offer. 

Of the students graduating from the complete courses of the agricultural 
colleges, few go back to the farm. Their services are in demand as teachers 
and in experimental work. Those who do go back to the communities from 
which they came and put into practice what they have learned in the agri- 
cultural college, even tho they have not completed a full course, show the 
beneficial results of the kind of training given there. The influence of their 
practice is felt by others and is ever widening. That influence would extend 
much more widely, and improved modes of farming would make more rapid 
strides, if opportunities were offered for awakening the interest and intelligence 
of the boys in every farming community in the state, in matters which vitally 
concern the people of those communities. 



54 



NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION 



The high schools, as existing in the cities and villages, offer but few oppor- 
tunities for the country boy or girl to secure the kind of training which will 
be most valuable for them if they are to remain upon the farm. They will 
get in these schools a general training such as comes from a study of books, 
but the farmer is to deal, not with books alone, but chiefly with things; and 
the high school does not effectively train its pupils for this form of activity. 
It becomes evident, then, that it is desirable not only to modify in some con- 
siderable degree the work now done in the district schools, by offering in them 
some instruction in the study of nature, and in such of the elements of agri- 
culture as is within the comprehension of the pupils attending them, but 
to organize a class of secondary schools in farming communities which shall 
undertake to carry on this work beyond the elementary stage and make it 
accessible to the country pupils at low cost. 

It would seem that in most states the county is the smallest unit which 
should be made the school district for the maintenance of the secondary school 
of agriculture and domestic economy. 

Two types of secondary agricultural schools have been referred to under 
the "Classes of Schools." 

The committee believes that a presentation of the plan" of organization, 
purposes, and scope of work in each of these schools will be of value t.o those 
interested in industrial education. The courses of study and outlines of 
industrial subjects taught in these schools furnish valuable material for those 
who are seeking to develop phases of industrial education in the rural and 
village high schools. 

Appendix A treats of the county school of agriculture and domestic econ- 
omy as developed in Dunn county, Wisconsin. 

Appendix B treats of the agricultural high school as developed in 
Minnesota. 

Appendix C presents articulated courses in industrial subjects in the 
consolidated rural school, the agricultural high school, and the agricultural 
college; as prepared by W. M. Hays, at the request of the committee. 

Appendix D presents a syllabus of elementary course in agriculture, pro- 
posed by a committee of the Association of American Agricultural Colleges 
and Experiment Stations, and published by the United States Department 
of Agriculture — Circular No. 60. 



PREPARATION OF TEACHERS TO QUALIFY THEM FOR GIVING 

INSTRUCTION IN INDUSTRIAL WORK IN RURAL 

SCHOOLS 

In this report four classes of schools are specially considered as adapted 
to the needs of rural communities, and in which various phases of industrial 
education should be given. 



INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION IN RURAL SCHOOLS 55 

The first, or lowest in rank, is the one-room district school; the second 
is the consolidated school; the third is the rural high school, which is located 
in the country or in the small village with a rural clientage ; and the fourth is 
the agricultural high school. 

DISTRICT SCHOOL TEACHERS 

The members of the teaching force in the school first mentioned are thruout 
the greater portion of the country, without professional training, and even on 
the side of academic training, their attainments are in many cases very limited. 

As has already been indicated, it is practically impossible to do any con- 
siderable work in industrial education in many of these schools because of the 
immaturity of the children. In those schools where a number of the pupils 
are of sufficient age to make this instruction of value, something may be 
accomplished if teachers are adequately prepared to undertake the work. 
But so long as the district-school teacher is prepared in the district school, 
or in the district school with a little supplementary work in a city high school, 
very little can be accomplished in the way of such preparation. 

In those states where district-school teachers are graduates of normal 
schools, provision should be made in the normal school courses for giving 
such instruction in nature study and the elements of agriculture and in house- 
hold affairs, as will enable the teachers receiving it to give the elementary 
instruction possible in the district school. As in most of the states few of the 
graduates from normal schools are employed in the district schools, but little 
can be accomplished from this source. 

In a few states, notably in Wisconsin and Michigan, distinct training 
schools with more limited courses of study than are maintained in the state 
normal schools have been established for the specific purpose of training 
country-school teachers. Schools of this class should give the instruction 
necessary to prepare their graduates for this line of work. The work to be 
given in the training or normal schools should not be confined to the study of 
text-books. While in some cases the text-book may serve as an aid to instruc- 
tion, provision should be made for the carrying on of observation, experiment, 
and practice work adapted to the needs of the district schools. 

A statutory provision requiring all teachers in the rural schools to pass 
an examination in nature study and in the elements of agriculture would 
direct their attention toward this subject and its literature, and would stimu- 
late school authorities to provide the necessary instruction in those schools 
whose students become teachers. 

In those states where reading-circle work is carried on, at least one of the 
reading-circle books might be chosen with reference to the treatment of 
subjects of agricultural instruction. The careful study of such a book by 
the district-school teachers would broaden their knowledge and be an aid to 
them in teaching the subject. 

Summer schools in different parts of the state devoted to work in nature 



56 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION 

study, agriculture, manual training, and domestic art would supplement the 
work of the training schools and the study of the text-books. These schools 
would naturally be attended by teachers expecting to teach soon in the 
district schools where pupils are old enough to make instruction in these 
subjects possible. 

In those states where teachers' institutes are carried on, the' major portion 
of the institute period might very properly be given for one or more years to 
these three subjects. This would give an opportunity for some experimental 
work to supplement the work previously done in the text -books by those who 
had not had any special training. This plan would be of little value in the 
short institute held during term time. In the summer institute, from two 
to four weeks in length, much might be accomplished. 

CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL-TEACHERS 

For the consolidated schools where the greater number of pupils complete 
the elementary course and a respectable number carry on the work for one or 
more years beyond the elementary course, more extended work in the field 
of industrial education may be undertaken, and therefore a broader prepara- 
tion on the part of the teachers becomes a necessity. 

As most of the teachers in these schools would be drawn from the state 
normal schools, in those states having that class of schools, provision should 
there be made for a more extended course of training in industrial subjects. 
One teacher properly trained could carry on this line of work in the different 
grades of the consolidated school. 

In other states, summer schools should be organized in connection with 
the state agricultural college, offering courses specially designed to meet the 
needs of these teachers. Such institutions might very properly offer a course 
extending thruout the year specially adapted to meet the needs of teachers 
in this class of schools. 

The limitations on salaries in the consolidated schools, due to the limited 
area and property valuation of the district, would doubtless make it impos- 
sible to secure graduates of agricultural colleges to give instruction in such 
schools. 

For the work in manual training and domestic science, teachers could 
doubtless be secured from training schools preparing teachers of these sub- 
jects, who could also teach certain of the academic branches. 

RURAL HIGH-SCHOOL TEACHERS 

In schools of the third class named above, the mdustnal work, whatever 
it is, must be carried on by one or more of the regular teachers as a part of 
their teaching work. These schools are too small and the funds for their 
support too meager, in most cases, to warrant the employment of special 
teachers of industrial subjects. 

The suggestions made for the preparation of the consolidated school 



INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION IN RURAL SCHOOLS 57 

teacher, for giving instruction in agriculture, manual training, and domestic 
science, apply with equal force to the high-school teachers now under con- 
sideration. 

AGRICULTURAL HIGH-SCHOOL TEACHERS 

For the agricultural high schools, the teachers of industrial subjects should 
have the kind of training given in the best agricultural colleges, and in the 
best training schools for the preparation of manual-training teachers and 
teachers of domestic art and economy. 

These secondary schools, whether as state or county institutions, must 
have such a standing as to command the confidence and respect of the com- 
munities supplying the student body. They must be able to do much more 
than merely teach the pupils who attend them. Their influence and activities 
must reach the farming population in the community, and work designed to 
reach adults outside the school room must be organized in ways which will be 
helpful and which will firmly establish these schools in the estimation of the 
public. For such work, it is clearly evident that the best teachers obtainable 
must be secured. The work and influence of a single teacher in such a school 
will do more to establish industrial education on an assured basis of support 
in the minds of the people than the work of hundreds of poorly prepared 
teachers in the district schools. 



AGENCIES AVAILABLE FOR CO-OPERATIVE EFFORT WITH 

THE SCHOOLS IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF 

INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION 

Certain things may be attempted and carried on through organized effort 
of societies or individuals, as has been done in Illinois in the production of 
corn, in New York thru the extension work of the agricultural college in 
connection with Cornell University, and thru the efforts of the Patrons of 
Husbandry, the farmers' institutes, and agricultural societies in different 
states, which in some way become a part of the school effort but not a part of 
the school course of instruction. The work accomplished thru some of 
these agencies in Illinois and New York is given as furnishing illustrations 
of effective educational work supplementing the efforts of the schools. 

THE WORK OF THE BOYS' EXPERIMENT CLUBS AND OF THE GIRLS' HOME 
IMPROVEMENT CLUBS IN ILLINOIS 

In some states the cooperation between the farmers' institutes and the 
country schools, with the county superintendent as an intermediary, has been 
very much to the advantage of both. In a very marked way this has been 
true in Illinois. The Agriculture College and experiment station directly 
reaches the institutes, the institutes reach the schools, and the school children 
carry to homes and farms not represented at the institute meeting much of the 



NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION 



instruction given there. To illustrate: The Winnebago County Farmer 
Boys' Experiment Club had, in 1904, a membership of four hundred and 
twenty-five, and the Girls' Home Culture Club an enrollment of three hundred. 
For three or four years the boys have been growing high-bred corn and taking 
an active part in the annual county institute. Each boy is furnished about 
five hundred kernels of corn and enters the competition to see what he can 
do with it. In his annual report for 1904, County Superintendent Kern 
makes this remarkable statement: 

On the Funk farm, the 1902 breeding block record for ear No. 99, planted in a single 
row, showed a rate of yield of eighty bushels per acre of seventy-pound corn, while the 
multiplying record for 1903, planted in five-acre plots, show that plot No. 10, planted from 
the progeny of ear No. 99, yielded at the rate of ninty-nine and one-half bushels per acre 
of the same weight of corn. The boy of the Winnebago County Farmer Boys' Experiment 
Club who won first prize in the corn contest for 1903 had a plot of corn which yielded at 
the rate .of one hundred and twenty-five bushels per acre, while several others had plots 
that approached the one-hundred-bushel mark. 

The applied pedagogy connected with these exercises included statement 
of methods employed, an itemized account of the cost, (estimating time at 
thirty cents per hour), the value of the product, and the profits of the 
enterprise. 

This year Supt. Kern has distributed five hundred and twenty-five pounds 
of sugar beet seed among seventy boys in his county and they will do experi- 
ment work in sugar beet growing. 

The school population of Mason County, 111., is 5,515. The country 
school enrollment included 1,145 boys, and 990 girls. The Boys' Club, 
March, 1905, had grown to one thousand and the Girls' Club to about eight 
hundred. The following statement secured from the county superintendent, 
Mr. Matthew Bollan, vividly illustrates his method of work: 

We spend a great deal of time teaching children things, which might be better spent 
in having them do things, under wise supervision. There is nothing that counts for so 
much in character building, it seems to me, as that the boy or girl shall do something 
that requires a sustained effort, something that may not be finished in a day, but requires 
time and planning, the final accomplishment of which is dependent somewhat upon 
influences outside of the boy's own resources. I was not particularly sorry when one 
of my boys reported to me that his corn field, which had been very carefully prepared 
and planted, had been literally washed away by a heavy rain two days after planting. 
He must learn sometime that "the best laid schemes o' mice and men gang aft agley." 
I sent him another' ear of Learning and asked him to prepare another plat and try again. 

Feeling that we could better enlist the parents in the work of what I am pleased to 
call the revival in the study of agriculture, and in the hope that our boys and girls might 
be taught to do things as well as made to know things, I have organized in our county 
what is known as the Mason County Boys' Experiment Club, and the Mason County 
Girls' Home Improvement Club. The purposes and plan of work for these clubs are 
quite similar to those of like clubs which have been organized in other counties of the 
state, particularly in Winnebago county, where Superintendent Kern has succeeded in 
awakening an interest in things agricultural. The nucleus for this organization of boys 
was about two hundred who had been induced to enter a boys' corn contest three years 
ago, securing the seed through the secretary of the State Farmer's Institute. Although 



INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION IN RURAL SCHOOLS 59 

something more than two hundred boys obtained seed, only fifty-five were able to exhibit 
their work at the farmers' institute in which the contest was held. This was the largest 
show of boys' work that had occurred in our county up" to that time. Immediately fol- 
lowing that institute we began planning for the organization of the boys and girls upon a 
much larger scale. Circulars were sent from the county superintendent's office to the 
two hundred boys and to the teachers of the county, explaining the plan of work for what 
is now our Boys' Experiment and our Girls' Home Improvement Clubs. Boys and 
girls between the ages of nine and eighteen years were admitted to membership, allowing 
each to designate the particular kind of farm or household work he or she cared to under- 
take, but making it obligatory upon all to undertake some special work that should be 
strictly his own or her own. Registration blanks were enclosed with these circulars, 
and as a result the names of seven hundred and sixty boys and six hundred and ten girls 
were received. By far the largest number of boys agreed to undertake the cultivation 
of corn, but the variety of work indicated to be undertaken by them covered a very wide 
range, including the raising of corn, potatoes, cowpeas, popcorn, peanuts, sweet potatoes, 
turnips, beans, celery, cabbage, and various other vegetables, poultry of various kinds, 
pigs, and in one case, cattle. 

Parents took active interest immediately, and one gentleman gave his boy, who 
had hitherto taken little interest in his father's work, a fine heifer for whose care, feeding, 
breeding, etc., the boy was to become entirely responsible. Parents generally promised 
to furnish seed for those who had agreed to undertake the raising of the different varieties 
of vegetable products, except corn, and to secure eggs from pure-bred poultry breeders 
for those who were to raise poultry. Immediately following this first corn contest and 
just before the present clubs were organized we undertook an excursion to Champaign. 
It was widely advertised at the farmers' institute and thru the schools, and as a result 
we took more than six hundred persons to the University of Illinois and its experiment 
farm. The results of that day's excursion have been far reaching in their beneficial 
effects upon the farm work of the county, and were somewhat directly responsible for the 
large and enthusiastic membership of both of the clubs. Each member of each of the 
clubs was furnished with a small button especially designed for the purpose. The funds 
for purchasing these buttons and for purchasing the seed corn for the boys were provided 
by an appropriation of $50 from the county board. 

We had selected from the best corn breeders nine bushels of the best seedcorn we 
could get, and had the same shipped to the county superintendent's office. In the 
interim between the receipt of this seed and sending it to the boys, probably one hun- 
dred and fifty farmers came to the office and looked it over. There were a few of them 
who had much better corn in their cribs, but none of them brought it in to make 
comparison. Shortly before the time for planting, this corn was sent out, one ear (about 
one thousand grains) to each boy. Before sending, the ear was carefully described upon 
the clasp-envelope secured for that purpose, the description including the weight, cir- 
cumference, length, number of rows, number of grains, proportion of corn to cob, etc. 
Thus each boy had before him the name of the variety and the description of the in- 
dividual ear from which he was to grow his corn crop. The pupils who were to raise 
poultry were given some assistance as to where to secure the eggs for their beginning, 
and in most cases that assistance came from the parents at home. 

Duplicate lists of the boys and girls, with postoffice address and kind of work under- 
taken, were sent to the congressman from our congressional district, and from three to 
five bulletins from the United States Department of Agriculture, indicated upon the list 
by number, were sent to each member. By this means there were distributed in the 
various farm homes of our county something like four thousand bulletins. Besides 
these, a number were received from the University of Illinois. Our teachers in most 
cases interested themselves in the work of the clubs, altho no time was taken from the 
regular school program. The county superintendent devoted some attention to the. work 



60 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION 

of the clubs during his annual visits last year, and it was not an unusual thing for the boys 
to bring into the schoolroom one or two ears of corn during the intermission period and 
ask for a corn talk. The county farmers' institute, in order to accommodate itself to the 
new order of things, took on new life, and by the assistance of a live local committee, 
secured about six hundred dollars with which to pay liberal premiums to the boys and 
girls for their work and meet other expenses of a great institute. The expectations of the 
farmers' institute management were not disappointed, for 377 boys brought out and 
exhibited corn, besides a large number who had other products, and fnore than fifty boys 
and girls exhibited poultry. The girls' department of plain and fancy needlework, cooking, 
and flowers was equally well represented. 

Some very accurate descriptions of the raising and caring for the corn were presented, 
but this part of the work was somewhat neglected because there was not time to do clerical 
work necessary to make it succeed. Upon the whole, the boys' corn was a very fine 
exhibit. The two highest grades given by the expert judges were awarded to two boys 
under thirteen years of age. 

I think several distinct things have been accomplished by the existence of these two 
clubs, among which may be named the following: 

A general awakening of interest among the farmers, expression of which may be seen 
in many different lines. Some good seed corn has found its way into every nook and 
corner of our county. Of course, there are some who will adhere to the idea that the 
corn which has been grown for the past twenty years and which has run out in every 
particular except in size of ear, is good enough, but these are few. There are now seven 
hundred young corn judges who are able to make life miserable for the man who knows 
better than the seed man, especially when his product passes into the hands of the 
judges beside theirs. 

It has transformed the farmers' institute from a moderately quiet affair, meeting in 
some obscure place and managing to spend the $75 apportioned by the state for the purpose 
of conducting such institutes, into what is regarded as the great meeting of the year, fur- 
nishing an excellent program, which reaches the ears of an ever widening circle of inter- 
ested farmers and housewives, and which paid last year for its program and premium 
list a little more than $600. 

Best of all, the boys and girls have been enabled to discover for themselves the value 
of wisely directed effort in the selection of seed and in the care and cultivation of their 
crops. They have seen, also, something of the reward of such effort, for some of them 
have been able to sell their corn readily for $1.50 per bushel, while that of their parents 
brings the customary 40 cents. 

It is in such ways as these that the enterprising county superintendent 
may stand as a middle-man between the experiment station and the children 
on the farms. In Cook County (Chicago) one of the assistant county super- 
intendents, Charles W. Farr, during the month of April, 1905, held a series 
of ten "corn meetings," the announced purpose of which was to consider with 
the schools of an entire township, and the parents of the children:' (1) The 
growth and fertilization of corn, emphasizing the possibility of breeding it 
with the same degree of care with which animals are bred; (2) to study 
thorobred ears of corn furnished for the purpose by professional corn 
breeders; (3) To consider samples of corn furnished by local farmers with 
reference to the selection of seed; (4) to encourage the boys to send for seed 
corn and enter the annual contest; and (5) by means of samples to set forth 
clearly the printed matter offered to the farmers by the state experiment 



INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION IN RURAL SCHOOLS 61 

station. These meetings were well attended by old and young, and the most 
enthusiastic interest was awakened. 

All this means more and better corn, of course. But it means much more. 
The attitude toward farm labor — all labor — is changed. . The combination 
of intelligence with manual labor arouses a quality of interest which gives 
farming as an occupation, an even chance with other occupations to appeal 
to the boyish imagination at the time when he is beginning to think about his 
life work. Superintendent Farr is the author of a formula which tells the 
whole story. " Seed + Soil + Moisture + Heat + Boy = CORN." 

The plan of organization and work of boys' experiment clubs and girls' 
home-culture clubs in Illinois, as described, has been adopted in a few localities 
in Ohio, Wisconsin, and Texas and possibly in other states. 

The systematic study of the cultivation, breeding, and judging of corn 
carried on by the boys in Illinois, thru definitely organized effort, has made 
available for them and their fathers the results of the scientific investigation 
of this cereal, carried on by experts in the agricultural college of the state, and 
will add hundreds of thousands of dollars to the value of the yearly corn crop 
in Illinois. 

All such work properly directed and organized is a move in the direction 
of awakening new interest and a practical intelligence in the affairs of the home 
and the farm. It reaches the parents and affects them in useful ways. Out 
of these experiments and activities will come an organized body of knowledge 
in form available for the teacher and for use in the schools of the country. 

Such clubs may be organized in every state in the Union for specific work 
on the particular products of the locality, provided there are men and women 
in these states who will make a study of local needs and inaugurate fines of 
effort, which will appeal to the interests of the community under definite 
practical plans of organization. 

AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE EXTENSION WORK LN NEW YORK 

Some of the enterprises connected with the Extension Work of the College 
of Agriculture of Cornell University provide means whereby the public may 
be roused to an interest in industrial education. The nature-study work 
of that institution is an explicit movement in this direction. It was inaugu- 
rated some years ago as a propaganda to arouse the people of the state to the 
necessity of education by means of the common objects and affairs of the 
environment. Its purpose has been to relate the education to the actual daily 
life of the pupil. One of the enterprises of this nature-study work is the read- 
ing-course for teachers. Another is the organizing of children into "junior 
naturalist clubs." These children are organized in the schools through the 
teacher. Every year the clubs are reorganized, since the pupils go to higher 
grades, or leave school, or the teacher may change. These clubs are working 
nature-study units. The character of work that they chiefly take up is sug- 
gested each month by the Junior Naturalist Monthly. This lays out special 



62 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION 

pieces of work each month and asks questions or suggests lines of inquiry 
which can be answered only by the pupils going directly to the objects them- 
selves. The club members write letters or "dues" in their response to these 
suggestions. As showing something of the extent of the work the following 
figures may be given: 

Up to March 27, of the present school year (beginning October, 1904) 446 
junior naturalist clubs have been organized in the schools of New York state, 
with a total membership at that date of 13,525 children. At that time there 
had been received 934 sets of dues, containing altogether 20,718 letters, from 
the children. These children are mostly in the earlier grades. The subjects of 
these letters cover a wide range, although a few general subjects always stand 
out very prominently as the choice of the children, as the following figures 
show: 

Letters on the horse 2,839 Letters on the Canada thistle 392 

Letters on the pumpkin 3,382 Letters on the seed travelers 760 

Letters on the squash 2,145 Letters on the silo i>79° 

Letters on the dog 2,794 Letters on the woodpeckers 1,102 

Letters on the chipmunk I ,°59 Letters on the pine and hemlock trees 1,219 

Letters on the alfalfa 983 Letters on the sumac . .- 1,161 

Letters on the soil 500 Letters on the cow 885 



This and similar work has come to be an established enterprise in New 
York State and nature-study work and elementary agriculture are now to be 
provided in the syllabi of the state education department. 

Another of the enterprises of the Cornell College of Agriculture are the 
farmers' reading-courses. These are designed for farm men and women. The 
reading season comprises the five months from November to March inclusive. 
Each month is devoted to a lesson. That is, five lessons are issued each 
year. Each lesson has a blank quiz or discussion paper which is to be 
returned to the Reading-Course Bureau of the College of Agriculture. 

When one series is completed the reader takes another series the next 
winter. In the farmers' reading-course five series are now provided for 
(twenty-five lessons in all). In the farmers' wives' course three series are now 
provided for (fifteen lessons in all). These lessons are furnished by the College 
of Agriculture and the courses are free to residents of the state. Altho this 
reading-course enterprise is not designed primarily as a supplement to public- 
school work, it is nevertheless in the broadest sense an educational movement 
and in many ways affords a means of spreading the propaganda for nature- 
study and agricultural training. 

For the week ending March 27, 1905, the number of persons reading in 
these two courses were as follows : 



INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION IN RURAL SCHOOLS 63 

Farmers 1 Reading-Course: 

Series I. Soil 2,582 

Series II. Stock 3>5 2 4 

Series III. Orcharding 1,238 

Series IV. Poultry 1,282 

Series V. Dairying : . . . 435 = 9,061 

Farmers 1 Wives' Reading-Course: 

Series I. Farm house and garden 6,056 

Series II. Farm family 4,410 

Series III. Sanitation and food 6,066= 16,532 



25.593 

The agricultural colleges can be a most important factor in suggesting the 
kinds of work best adapted to the local needs, and in furnishing in proper 
form the necessary information for carrying on the work successfully. 

The committee believes that there should be connected with every agri- 
cultural college in the land at least one man charged with the duty of organ- 
izing in pedagogic form such results of experiment work as can be brought 
within the comprehension of the farming population, old and young, and 
profitably utilized by them. He should also be the representative of the 
agricultural college in the field among the farmers. He should organize 
efforts to bring this knowledge to their attention and to have it applied for 
economic results. Thru properly established relations with the state and 
county superintendents, farmers' institutes, the Grange, and such other 
agencies as are available, he should undertake to secure the organization of 
the boys' and girls' clubs and of clubs of farmers, and farmers' wives, for 
practical study and experiment in definite' lines of production work, and for 
the reading of matter of practical value in the concerns of the home and farm. 

PATRONS OF HUSBANDRY 

The Patrons of Husbandry affords one of the best means of bringing the 
need of industrial education to the people. The Grange is established on an 
educational basis, and has officers and committees whose duty it is to keep the 
order informed on questions of public interests. In New York, the State 
Grange has established scholarships in the College of Agriculture of Cornell 
University. Subordinate granges are always ready to discuss questions con- 
cerned with the betterment of the rural schools. 

children's work at fairs 
There is good opportunity to interest the teachers of the schools and the 
general public in the nature-study and agricultural work by means of exhibits 
at the town, county, and state fairs. The drawings, specimens, collections, 
and essays that result from work in the schools make very attractive exhibits. 
At the county fair in Bath, Steuben county, N. Y., the children's work has 
been a prominent feature for a number of years. There is a children's day, 
on which children are admitted either free or at a very small price, and special 



64 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION 

arrangements are made to have their exhibits on view. Expert judges are 
secured to award prizes for the essays, collections, plants, and the like. 
The children of the public schools of Syracuse, N. Y., and vicinity have made 
a very creditable exhibit for a number of years at the state fair. They fill a 
fifty-foot tent with the plants of their growing. The nature-study bureau 
of the College of Agricultural of Cornell University has sent letters and circulars 
to the managers of the county fairs, urging them to offer on their premium 
lists small sums for the products of children's gardens, for collections of named 
grasses, and in a few instances for weeds. During the fair season it is the 
purpose to keep in touch so far as possible with these various displays by 
speaking to the children and inspecting their exhibits. The most popular 
exhibits are expected from village schools having a principal and teachers 
who are especially interested in this kind of work. Similar effort to interest 
the rural-school pupils and teachers in making a showing of their work at 
county and state fairs, and to interest the people in the educational work of 
their children is made in other states and should be encouraged everywhere 
under proper control and guidance. 



APPENDIX A 



THE DUNN COUNTY SCHOOL OF AGRICULTURE AND DOMESTIC 

ECONOMY 

HISTORICAL STATEMENT 

In 1899 the Wisconsin legislature appointed a commissioner to investigate and report 
upon the methods of procedure in this and other states and countries in giving instruction 
in manual training and in the theory and art of agriculture to the public schools. 

Among the recommendations in that report was one for the enactment of a law author- 
izing counties to establish secondary schools of agriculture and domestic economy. The 
legislature in 1901 enacted a law providing for such schools and proffering state aid to the 
first two schools thus organized. In 1902, two schools of this class were established; 
one in Menomonie, Dunn county, and the other in Wausau, Marathon county. There 
was a good attendance at the opening of each school which has steadily increased each 
year. 

The legislature of 1903, increased the number of schools entitled to state aid to four, 
increased the amount of aid in each case, and authorized two or more counties to unite 
in establishing and maintaining a school. 

COUNTY AGRICULTURAL SCHOOL LAW 

The following is an outline of the Wisconsin law creating and assisting county schools 
of agriculture and domestic economy. (Chapter 288 of 1901, as amended in 1903.) 

Sections 1 , 2 and 3 create the schools of this class and provide for county school boards 
of three members. 

Sec. 4 allows two or more counties to unite in one school. 

Sec. 5 makes the county treasurer the school treasurer. 

Sec. 6 names branches to be taught. 

Sec. 7 requires a plot of three acres for farm practice. 

Sec. 8 makes the school free to students in any county helping to support such school. 

Sec. 9 makes the state superintendent also superintendent of such schools. 



INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION IN RURAL SCHOOLS 65 

Sec. 10 provides for list of four such schools when approved by the dean of the College 
of Agriculture and the state superintendent. Cost of maintaining a school is to be 
reported to the State Superintendent. School must be maintained eight months. The 
state shall pay each county maintaining such school "a sum equal to two-thirds the 
amount actually expended for maintaining such school during the year, provided that the 
total amount so apportioned shall not exceed $4,000 to any one school in any one year." 

POSITION OF SCHOOL IN STATE SYSTEM 

The chief purpose of the county agricultural schools, as now established in Wisconsin, 
is to popularize agricultural education more than can be done by a well-filled state college. 
The schools are subordinate to the state college in that they are not so advanced, especially 
in their academic subjects. Students are admitted directly from the rural schools. Most 
of them would never go to an agricultural school, if this new class of schools were not 
brought close to them. Some students board at home and help with home chores, others 
visit home at the end of each week and are dominated by the home spirit thruout 
their school life. Certainly these county schools in Wisconsin reach a class of pupils 
that would not feel that they could spare the money necessary to attend the State Agricul- 
tural College. And yet there are students, who, after getting the work of the county school, 
will feel like continuing their education and will attend the State College of Agriculture. 
Several graduates are already planning such a course. More county schools of agriculture 
will help fill the State College of Agriculture to overflowing. 

GENERAL EQUIPMENT 

The Dunn County School of Agriculture has three buildings located on a half block 
in the center of Menomonie, the county seat. Here there is still room for poultry runs and 
a small garden for girls' practice. Philanthropic citizens and the city gave these grounds 
to the school. The school farm consists of six acres located on the county fair grounds 
nearly one mile from the school. Here the boys of the school have practice in farm, 
orchard, and nursery work. The area may be increased from time to time. 

BUILDINGS FOR THE AGRICULTURAL SCHOOL 

The school has the use of four buildings : 

The main building is 42 by 96 feet, three stories high, built of brick. The first and 
second floors are devoted to the uses of the School of Agriculture and the third floor to 
the County Teachers' Training School. A glass wing 30 by 30 feet is used for greenhouse 
purposes. 

The mechanical building is 24 by 50 feet, two stories high over a high bank basement. 

The horticultural building is 28 by 50 feet, two stories high over a bank basement. 
The basement story is what gives the building its name, as it is used for potting of plants, 
grafting and budding lessons, winter storage of cions, roots, bulbs, and tender plants. 

The farm tool house, built by students, is 14 by 16 feet, one story high. 

The carpentry and blacksmith shops are supplied with the best of tools, substantial 
and handy benches (made by students), forges, anvils, vises, lathes, circle saw, steam 
engine, gasoline engine, etc. The sewing department has its cutting tables, work tables, 
sewing machines, tracing boards, and wardrobes. The kitchen equipment, of utensils, 
dishes, tables, cabinets, ranges, food sets, cupboards, sink and refrigerator, is complete 
in every detail. The laboratory is provided with apparatus necessary for chemistry, 
physics, plant fife, and soil experiments. Facilities for stereopticon illustration are pro- 
vided. Machinery and tools for use on the farm and garden are of the most modern types. 

The equipment in the dairy includes cream separators, Babcock testers, combined 
churn and worker, ripening vat, milk heater, scales, and complete set of utensils. 

Poultry quarters are constructed on model plans of economy and cleanliness. The 
department is supplied with two incubators and two brooders. Brooders were built by 
carpentry students. The best types of farm poultry are kept. 



66 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION 

In regard to building and equipment it should be remembered that for the amount 
which the county has expended it has two young institutions established, viz., the Agri- 
cultural School and the County Teachers' Training school. Much has been saved by 
building for two schools at the same time. 

The entire property of the two county schools (Agricultural and Teachers') has cost 
the county $23,035. But the total valuation of the property including the small farm 
is $39,103 . 85. The difference is made up largely by gifts from manufacturers and citizens, 
and by articles made by students in the School of Agriculture. 

COST OF RUNNING THE SCHOOL 

The state law authorizes any county (not to exceed four) to build and equip a school 
of agriculture and pay the running expense for one year. After that the state will pay 
two-thirds of the annual cost of maintaining the school — not to exceed $4,000 for each 
school. Experience of two years shows that the annual running expense is about $6,000, 
two-thirds of which is paid by the state and only one-third by the county. 

The assessed value of taxable property in Dunn county is about $10,500,000. Any 
person with an assessment of $100 will pay less than two cents to support the school. 
Property assessed at $1,000 requires a payment of less than 20 cents a year, to run this 
school. Thus it is seen that the annual cost is almost nothing to the individual tax-payer 
in the county. 

When such are the facts, all who may have had some fears regarding the matter of 
annual cost may feel at ease; for surely a county in an agricultural region can easily 
support its own "farmers' school." 

CORRELATIVE LINES OF WORK FOR FARMERS AND TEACHERS 

Much agricultural information is disseminated from the Agricultural School to the 
farmers of the county. Directions for planting, suggestions as to varieties, combating 
noxious weeds, helping establish co-operative creameries, planning barns, silos, school- 
houses, dwellings, devising ventilators, selecting stock, and many other subjects are taken 
up by the instructors with individual farmers. The school has done a great deal of milk- 
and cream-testing for farmers for the purpose of helping to improve dairy herds. On the 
school farm such new crops are tried as should be used by those living in the section. 
Many hundreds of bulletins on special farm topics have been placed in the hands of farmers 
desiring information on these subjects. 

A novel feature of the school's work in Dunn county is the introduction, thru the 
rural teachers, of elementary agriculture and manual training into district schools of 
the county. By an interchange of classes with the County Teachers' Training School 
the Agricultural School teaches the rural teachers to handle these subjects in their school 
in a very creditable manner. 

CHARACTER OF THE INSTRUCTION 

In all the instruction in the Dunn County School of Agriculture the useful side of 
the knowledge and training given to the students is emphasized. This is the principle 
on which the school is founded. The extended knowledge which the farmer must have 
should be made as practical as possible. At every point the school is made to co-operate 
with the farm, the shop, the dairy, and the home. The manual-training courses are made 
far more practical and useful than such courses usually are. Nearly all of the time of the 
classes has been engaged in making articles of use on the farm, in the home, in the school 
and shop. The same feature of useful training has prevailed in domestic economy, plant 
life, farm accounts, study of soils, poultry, and in fact all subjects. 



INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION IN RURAL SCHOOLS 67 

SCHOOL ATTENDANCE 

The Agricultural School continues growing in numbers and usefulness. While the 
attendance is not so great as we may reasonably expect it to be in a few years it is bettci 
than the highest expectations of its warmest friends. 

The total enrollment the first year was 64 — 40 young men and 24 young women. 
The average age of all was nearly 18 years. The second year the enrolment reached 79 — 
45 young men with an average age of 18J years, and 34 young women with an average age 
of 19. Eighty-five per cent, of the students are from the farm, and all are preparing for 
life on the farm. 

ATTITUDE OF STUDENTS 

To show the attitude which the students in the school have toward it, the following 
question was asked: "Why should rural young people attend the Dunn County Agri- 
cultural School?" 

A few of the answers may be of interest here. "In sewing one may learn to make 
her own garments." "We can learn good housekeeping, sewing, laundering, how to plan 
a house, how to work quickly and quietly." "We learn a great deal about the food value 
of different food materials, and the right way of cooking foods." "It offers the most 
practical course in domestic economy of any school I could find." "We learn the effect 
of diet upon the health, and how to prepare foods in the most healthful manner." "We 
learn the easiest, quickest, and best way to do our work." "I love housework, and by 
attending this school I have learned many things that will make it easier; also many ways 
to economize time, strength, and money." "Attending this school has made me more 
interested in all work." 

"I have learned the care and use of all tools used by the farmer." "In my opinion 
it prepares students for a much more pleasurable and prosperous life." "To secure 
practical training in blacksmithing and carpentry." 

" I came here because I know that I will become a better farmer and American citizen 
by it." "It is necessary for the future farmer to have a course in such a school to enable 
him to be the most successful farmer." " It teaches how to farm with success, how to keep 
a farm in good order; what crops pay the best, and what ones are the hardest on the land." 
"I have learned how to run an engine; the proper care of milk and cream, and how to 
make good butter." "The school has helped me to secure twice the wages I could get 
before." "We learn that a farmer's life and work is not all drudgery." 

The graduates of the school are all following agricultural pursuits and are in all cases 
putting into practice many of the things they learned while in school. This is a good 
standard from which to measure the success of the school. 

County schools of agriculture cannot be a success unless the farmers of the vicinity 
take an abiding interest in them. The experience in Wisconsin shows that the farmers 
look upon these schools with much favor. They are proud of them. A farmer will speak 
of the school as "the farmer's best friend," "the best place to send our boys," "the col- 
lege for the rural classes," and in such complimentary ways only. 

REGULAR COURSE OF STUDY 

The regular course covers two years of eight months each, beginning in October and 
closing in May. 

young men: first year 

First Term: Work with Soil, *5 ; Carpentry, d. 5; English and Library Reading, 5 ; 
Business Arithmetic, 5. 

Second Term: Soils and Fertilizers, 5; Dairying, d. 2; Carpentry, d. 3; English 
and Library Reading, 5; Farm Accounts, 5; Rural Architecture, d. 2. 

Third Term: Plant Life, 5; Vegetable, Flower, and Fruit Gardening, 5; Poultry, 3; 
English and Library Reading, 5. 

*The numerals denote the number of recitation periods per week; d. signifies double period. 



68 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION 

SECOND YEAR 

First Term: Plant Life, 5; Blacksmithing, d. 5; Economic Insects and Diseases, 5; 
English and Library Reading, 5. 

Second Term: Animal Husbandry, 5 ; Blacksmithing, d. 5; United States History, 5 ; 
English and Library Reading, 5. 

Third Term: Animal Husbandry, 5; Vegetable, Flower, and Fruit Gardening, 5; 
English and Library Reading, 5; Civil Government, 5. 

young women: first year 

First Term: Cooking and Sewing, *d. 5 ; English and Library Reading, 5 ; Business 
Arithmetic, 5. 

Second Term: Cooking and Sewing, d. 5; Home Economy, 5; English and Library 
Reading, 5; Laundry, 2. 

Third Term: Cooking and Sewing, d. 5; Plant Life, 5; Poultry, 3; Hygiene, 5; 
English and Library Reading, 5. 

second year 

First Term: Cooking and Sewing, d. 5 ; English and Library Reading, 5 ; Economic 
Insects and Diseases, 5. 

Second Term: Cooking and Sewing, d. 5; Chemistry of Foods, 5; United States 
History, 5; English and Library Reading, 5. 

Third Term: Cooking and Millinery, d. 5; Home Nursing and Emergencies, d. 2; 
Vegetable, Flower, and Fruit Gardening, 5; English and Library Reading, 5; Civil 
Government, 5. 

WINTER TERM SHORT COURSE 

There are large numbers of young people who, from lack of means or time, are unable 
to take an extended course of study, but whose usefulness in the world would be much 
increased by a little special training. Their earning capacity in the household or on the 
farm is far from what it might be. The winter short course at the Agricultural School is for 
the benefit of such persons. The short course is primarily intended for persons of advanced 
age, and younger pupils should plan to take the regular course. The complete short course 
covers two winter terms, twelve weeks each, beginning in January and ending in March. 

The following are the subjects: 

For men, first winter: Science of Agriculture, Farm Accounts and Commerce, 
Dairying, Farm Carpentry, English. 

For men, second winter: Feeding and Care of Stock, Soils and Fertilizers, Farm 
Blacksmithing, Rural Architecture, English. 

For women, first winter: Home Economy, Cooking, Sewing, Laundering, English. 

For women, second winter: Cooking, Sewing, Millinery, Personal and Domestic 
Hygiene, English. 

REQUIREMENTS FOR ADMISSION 

In order to pursue the work of the regular course, students should have a common 
school education. Young people thru with their country school may enter this school. 
Persons in doubt as to their ability to enter are urged to write or call on the principal of 
the school. Application for admission to the school should be made in advance by writing 
to the principal of the Agricultural School, Menomonie, Wis. 

TUITION FREE 

Tuition is free for students living in Dunn county, and at present the amount charged 
for students from other counties is only ten dollars per year if paid in advance, or if paid 
by terms is as follows: Fall, $4; winter, $5; spring, $3. Books are rented by the school 
at the rate of 25 cents a month for all a pupil needs. 

COST OF LIVING 

The cost of living near the school is very little greater than the cost of living at home. 
Students find board and rooms in private families at prices ranging from $2.50 to $3.25 
per week. Students often furnish their own rooms from home and board themselves for 
about $1 . 00 or $2 . 00 per week or less. 

♦The numerals denote the number of recitation periods per week; d. signifies double period. 



INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION IN RURAL SCHOOLS 69 

OUTLINES OF SUBJECTS AND METHODS 
SOILS AND FERTILIZERS 

This course includes the nature, function, origin, and wasting of soils; texture, com- 
position, and kinds of soil; humus of the soil; soil moisture and its conservation; capil- 
larity, solution, diffusion, and osmosis; soil temperature; relation of air to soil; physical 
effects of tillage and fertilizers; sources of loss of the elements of fertility; function of 
manures and fertilizers; nitrogenous fertilizers; potash; phosphates; purchase and use of 
fertilizers; particular needs of special crops. The work of the course is supplemented by 
the examination of many kinds of soils and subsoils, samples of fertilizers, and an exami- 
nation of results obtained in various experimental tests. 

In the study of soils the classes use text-book and laboratory methods. The physical 
laboratory serves as a suitable place for considerable soil work. This is supplemented 
by experiments in the greenhouse and in the grafting room. Numerous experiments, 
such as those suggested in Chapters I to VI of Bailey's Principles of Agriculture are per- 
formed by classes. 

POULTRY RAISING 

Poultry quarters are constructed on model plans of economy and cleanliness. The 
department is supplied with facilities for artificial incubation and brooding. Brooders 
were built by carpentry students. Bone and meat grinders were given by manufacturers. 

The best types of farm poultry are kept. A term of lectures on poultry raising rounds 
out the practice work in this subject. 

Some of the topics considered are: Planning, arrangement, and building of poultry 
houses and runs; characteristics and special uses of the various leading breeds of poultry; 
breeding, feeding, and management of fowls for eggs and for market; managing incubators 
and brooders. 

INSECTS AND DISEASES 

Losses due to insect life; transformations; economic bearing of insects with biting 
and with sucking mouth-parts; careful study of the worst insects of the farm, garden, 
orchard, and household. Both injurious and beneficial insects are studied from life and 
from specimens in the laboratory. There is considerable practice in making and using 
spray materials, such as emulsions, poisons, and fungicides. These are applied in the 
greenhouse, gardens, and private plantations. Students thus become familiar with differ- 
ent forms of spraying apparatus. The most important plant diseases of the northwest are 
studied with a view to checking their ravages. 

SCIENCE OF AGRICULTURE 

For short-course students the subject matter varies only a little from the winter term 
work in the regular course. This avoids a multiplication of classes. One subject given 
only to the short course students (men) covers the general science of agriculture in a broad 
way. A suitable text is used in this class, and a number of reference books are. used by 
means of a topical method of recitation. 

DAIRYING 

Thoro instruction in the care of milk, cream, and utensils; principles involved 
in creaming milk by gravity and centrifugal processes; full instruction in regard to running 
farm separators and the manufacture of butter. Students receive practical training in 
the ripening of cream, churning, working, and packing of butter, testing the value of 
milk and cream by the Babcock method. 

This practice is carried on in a well-equipped dairy, containing cream separators, 
Babcock testers, combined churn and worker, ripening vat, milk heater, scales, and 
complete set of utensils. Students run a boiler and engine in operating the machinery. 
The sloping cement floor and brick walls make the creamery quite sanitary and modern. 
Milk is bought from farmers who haul it to the dairy, and the butter is sold at the highest 
market price to local customers and stores. 

The purpose is to give young men very thoro training in those lines of the business 
as will serve to make them better creamery patrons, and teach them to furnish the products 
of the highest quality, and conduct the dairy herd with the greatest profit. Students 
wishing to become butter makers take additional work in the subject — in figuring income 
of creamery, cream checks for patrons, overchurn, and other mathematical work. Advanced 
students are given additional practice in handling starter, making butter, and all details 
of the business. Inspection trips are made to some of the best creameries of the county. 



7° 



NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION 



PLANT LIFE 

i. This work begins with elementary nature lessons from plant life. This leads 
readily to studies in regard to how plants grow, how they feed, their effect on the soil, 
lessons in pollination, germination, natural and artificial methods of propagation, as 
layering, grafting, budding, and by cuttings. Lessons are given in plant physiology 
with experiments in the laboratory. In the study of plant life very little of the old-fashioned 
botanical work of the high school is taken up. No technical, systematic botany is intro- 
duced, but the characteristics of the families of plants which are of greatest economic 
value are considered. Much field work is included in the course. 

2. Studies of varieties for cultivation; comparative values for marketing, for feeding, 
and for fertilizing fields; studies in grasses and other forage crops; corn, wheat, and 
other recently improved grains; best methods of harvesting, curing, preserving, including 
use of silo and shredder; methods of marketing, etc. Plants of the market garden receive 
special attention. Students become familiar with the most common weeds and how to 
combat them. 

RURAL ARCHITECTURE AND DRAWING 

Mechanical drawing is practiced in the shop and class room, where working drawings 
are made for use at the carpenter's bench, or to be followed in the construction of dwellings, 
barns, granaries, silos, poultry houses, machine sheds, cupboards, cases and other indoor 
structures. Students are encouraged to plan buildings and other structures that are 
needed on their home farms, and to make lists of material showing cost of same, and cost 
of construction. 

PRINCIPLES OF PHYSICS 

A brief time is given to experiments in the laboratory, teaching those principles of 
physics which are most applicable to farm practice, such as heating, lighting, ventilation, 
water supply, friction and lubricants, principles of pumps, eveners, pulleys, and engines. 

ELEMENTS OF CHEMISTRY 

A short study is made of the more common chemical elements and their chief com- 
pounds. For the young men these lessons lead up to the study of the composition of 
soils, fertilizers, and feeds. For the young women the elementary chemistry forms a 
groundwork for the chemistry of foods. 

FARM ACCOUNTS AND COMMERCE 

A very small proportion of farmers in the west keep farm accounts. A very thoro 
course in this subject has been worked out for this school. The students formulate 
accounts in books suitable for home use, in 'all subjects found dealing with farm work of 
today. A brief study of commercial law of importance to farmers is taken up. Business 
forms, contracts and land survey are studied; making of inventories; memorandum 
forms; time books; accounts with grain crops; stock accounts; purchases and sales; 
notes payable and receivable; cash accounts; other farm accounts, and practice in keeping 
same; plans and purposes of co-operative and other economic organizations. 

BUSINESS ARITHMETIC 

Review of fractional forms, measurements of wood, walls, land, tanks; compound 
and denominate numbers; special computations suited to farm practice, such as income 
from da'ry cows, feed rations, cost of buildings, cost of fencing, cost and contents of silo, 
silage and other feed needed for a herd. The work prepares the pupils for better under- 
standing of operations in farm accounts class. 

VEGETABLE, FLOWER, AND FRUIT GARDENING — FARM PRACTICE 

This includes the principles of gardening of vegetables, flowers, and fruit; garden 
tillage; irrigation; rotation of crops; structure, use, and care of hotbeds; seed-testing; 
protection from frosts. Practice is given in the growing of various garden flowers and 
vegetables. Six acres of land are provided on the county fair grounds for classes in this 
course. 

Farm machines of the best types are freely given by manufacturers for advertising 
purposes. A few necessary tools purchased by the school make the farm equipment 
quite complete in this line. 

On the farm a number of new crops are being tried. A good nursery of several 
thousand trees is started by the students. Such leguminous crops as alfalfa, soy beans, 
cowpeas, vetch, field peas, and alsike clover are being tried to illustrate their value in 
improving soils as well as in producing forage for stock. 



INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION IN RURAL SCHOOLS 71 

The students are taken to orchards in the county for practice in pruning, and to the 
best small-fruit and other plantations to study methods of culture and management. (See 
also notes on stock feeding and care.) 

ANIMAL HUSBANDRY 

The work in this subject is chiefly divided into two terms' work under the subject of 
"Feeds and Feeding" and "Care of Animals." The study is made very practical by 
trips to the best farm barns in the county, to learn methods of housing, feeding, and hand- 
ling, by careful examination of many sound and unsound animals of all kinds. Consider- 
able stock judging is carried on by classes in connection with the subject. Students become 
very familiar with all types of farm animals — beef and dairy cattle, light and draft horses, 
lard and bacon hogs, mutton, and long-wool sheep. 

The best stock men in the section are invited to address the classes. An expert 
veterinarian gives a series of practical talks to the classes, which are of immense value. 

Care of Animals. — Care of animals in stables and yards; judging for age; unsound- 
ness in horses; training and breaking colts; treatment of balking, rearing, runaways, 
pulling on bit ; causes and cures of lameness such as laminitis, corns, and shoulder troubles ; 
study of pulse and temperature; giving medicine, use of enemas, counter irritants, anes- 
thetics, disinfectants, antiseptics; treatment of wounds, abnormal growths; dehorning, 
castrating; studies in breeding and attendant troubles; diseases of bones, such as bone 
spavin, ring-bone, side-bones, big knee, splint, dislocations; bog-spavin, wind-puffs, 
curb, knee-sprung; diseased teeth; impaction of rumen; colic in horses, scouring, con- 
stipation; diseases of breathing and nervous system, and skin; such parasites as lice, scab, 
mange, bots, worms; such diseases as glanders, blackleg, abortion, tuberculosis, cholera; 
azoturia; poisonous foods and their antidotes. 

Feeds and Feeding. — Feeding farm animals, as the horse, fattening steer, dairy cow, 
dairy calf, veal, fattening sheep, young lambs, pigs and fattening hogs; special studies, 
such as influence of wide and narrow rations when fed to milch cows; studies of special 
feeding experiments; attendant care and management for rearing lambs, calves, colts, 
and pigs. 

Feeding stuffs: Study of composition and feeding; value of leading feeds and special 
feeds of the farm; importance of leguminous plants for green forage and hay; special 
influence of feeds; study of feed tables and figuring rations for farm animals. 

GARDENING FOR WOMEN 

Theoretical instruction and practical application; making and maintaining a farm 
garden; seed testing; germination percentages; planting record; construction and use 
of hotbeds; soil temperature; transplanting, potting, and repotting; garden plans; 
staking and labeling; handling of produce; marketing; methods of propagation; gar- 
dening for home consumption; gardening for profit. 

A suitable area for gardening purposes lies between the agricultural school buildings 
and gives abundant opportunity for practical work by the young women of the school. 
All kinds of profitable garden crops are raised. A new greenhouse, heated by hot water s 
furnishes means of teaching the propagation of house plants in cold weather. 

FARM BLACKSMITHING 

How to fashion from stock iron various articles useful on the farm, such as tongs, 
cold chisels, punches, rings, chain links, clevises, brackets, harrow teeth, etc.; how to 
use and take care of files; how to construct a serviceable forge and to otherwise equip a 
shop for farm blacksmithing; original exercises in repairing broken parts of farm 
machinery; something of the nature and structure of different kinds of iron and steel, as 
well as some knowledge of the processes by which each is produced. Especial attention 
is given to the process of welding iron and steel, and of tempering tools of steel. Some 
attention is given to mixing and putting on paints; repairing tinware; care and opera- 
tion of engines and other farm machines. 

The blacksmith department is equipped with portable forges, anvils, and a few 
simple blacksmith tools for each student. All the work is of a very practical nature. 

Incidents of the manual-training work are the operation of steam and gasoline engines, 
motors, and other farm machines; renovating and repairing dilapidated machinery. 
Students and farmers are encouraged to have farm shops of their own. 

FARM CARPENTRY 

Instruction in carpentry is given in the workshop and includes the following: How 
to care for, sharpen, and use in a practical way such ordinary carpenter tools as should 
be used on a farm; work on models that will teach how to make the different kinds of 



NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION 



joints, splices, etc., necessary in the construction of buildings, machines, cupboards, and 
a variety of useful and ornamental articles for the home; the construction, in miniature, 
of parts or a whole of different buildings, demonstrating principles and methods employed. 
Each member of the class will make, during the course, a number of useful articles that 
he may take home with him by paying the mere cost of material. Splicing and tying 
ropes is given the boys in this class. 

The carpentry is not mere manual training, as taught in high schools. It is "farm 
carpentry." After the necessary preliminary work the students soon learn the construction 
of buildings, machines, cupboards, paper racks, mail boxes, match holders, milk stools, 
book cases, and a variety of useful and ornamental articles for the home and farm. In 
the Agricultural School the classes in carpentry have ceiled and done the interior finishing 
of the poultry department, and the gymnasium. They have made the work benches and 
tool racks for the carpentry department, and hardly a week passes without showing the 
completion of a number of articles for school use. The farm tool house was built by the 
students. The carpentry department is equipped with such tools as should be used in 
farm shops. Equipments too elaborate for use on any farm would have a detrimental 
influence upon the students. Simple, plain tools of the very best quality are used. Besides 
the bench tools some power machinery is available for advanced students. 



The cooking department is equipped a§ nearly like a home kitchen as is consistent 
with the number of students to be accommodated. Wood and gasoline ranges are used 
instead of individual gas plates. Convenient cupboards and kitchen cabinets are such 
as should be in any well equipped home. Even the work tables used by the pupils are 
models of convenience in every respect. Food sets, showing the composition of each of 
the standard foods, are conspicuously placed for constant reference and study in the 
preparation of meals. Students get practice in preparing and serving meals to each other 
and to numerous visitors. 

The course in cooking includes a study of starchy foods, potatoes, cereals; quick 
breads, and other flour mixtures; a study of the yeast plant and its action; bread-making; 
vegetables; cream soups; meats, their food value and methods of cooking; soups; 
desserts; planning cooking, and serving simple meals. 

During the second year dietetic values of foods are taken up, and each student plans 
a meal correctly balanced as to food nutrients, and serves it to the class. Numerous 
special foods are prepared by the class covering subjects of the first year in a more advanced 
way. The classes prepare foods for outside orders and food sales such as cakes, breads, 
candies, and desserts. They prepare and serve at banquets, parties, institutes, and 
other gatherings. 

CHEMISTRY OF FOODS 

A study of oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen, carbon, carbon-dioxide; composition of 
body; composition of foods; sugars; starches; fats; protein; mineral; digestion of 
various food stuffs; adulteration of foods; bacteria and molds; preservation of foods. 

This work is given chiefly by means of laboratory experiments, the students working 
upon and analyzing food stuffs. 

INVALID COOKF.RY 

Invalid cookery is taken up as a special branch of the work in cooking. The value 
of absolute cleanliness and daintiness in serving in invalid's tray with its effect upon the 
patient is taught; special diet for fevers and other individual cases; the making of gruels, 
broths, and other dainty and nutritious dishes; special diets for convalescents. 



The sewing department is equipped with sewing machines, draughting tables, and 
everything necessary to teach the girls the best methods of making their own garments. 
They furnish their own material and use the finished products. They make underclothing, 
shirt waists, skirts, wool dresses, and children's dresses. The students become skilled 
both in hand and machine work. 

The course is divided as follows: (i) Draughting, cutting and making by machine 
suits of underclothes, cotton waists, and dress skirts. (2) Draughting, cutting, fitting, 
and making wool waists, unlined wool skirts; children's ornaments. 

MILLINERY 

The millinery, like the other practical work of the course, is not intended for pro- 
fessional use. The aim is to cultivate simplicity of taste and teach making the best use 
of materials and means at hand. 



INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION IN RURAL SCHOOLS 73 

The course includes the making and trimming of hats and bonnets; study of the 
harmony of colors; discussion of taste in selection of bonnets, hats, plumes, frames, tips 
flowers, trimmings; the renovating and use of available material already on hand. 

HOME ECONOMY 

The course in home economy is designed to cover the broad field of the home left 
untouched by the special branches like cooking, sewing, and laundry work. An outline 
of the work is as follows: The house plan, drainage, sanitation, ventilation, heating, and 
lighting; household furnishings and their care; house-cleaning and sanitation; cleaning 
and preservation of clothing, carpets, rugs, and floors; household accounts; use of bank 
accounts and check books; relation of income to expenditure. 

Charts and drawings are used; visits are made to dwellings with model features; 
good features of modern homes are discussed by members of the class. 

HOME NURSING 

The lessons in home nursing are to meet the need in so many homes where the care 
of a sick one devolves on the family. A professional nurse is not always obtainable and 
not always necessary, but a knowledge of what to do and how to care for a patient intelli- 
gently is of great value to every woman. 

The course includes care of sickroom and bed; duties of nurse; care of patient; 
precautions in contagious diseases; disinfection of patient and room; special diets for 
the sick; nursing of special diseases; diet for children. 

EMERGENCIES 

The aim of this course is to give students the knowledge that every man and woman 
ought to have, of what to do in cases of accident while waiting for a physician. The work 
is given by means of lectures with occasional illustrations. 

The course includes circulation of the blood; hemorrhages and how to stop them; 
treatment and dressing of wounds; bandaging; artificial respiration; unconsciousness; 
poisons and their antidotes; fractures and sprains. 

LAUNDERING 

A well-equipped modern home laundry is used to teach the principles of laundering. 
Special attention is given to the removing of fruit and other stains, and disinfecting; 
special treatment of flannels, silks, prints, and laces; fixation of colors; composition and 
action of various soaps, soda, bluing, borax, and washing powders; making and using 
cold and boiled starch; care and use of irons; polishing devices. 

Each lesson is made practical by laundering material selected for the occasion. 



Kinds of respiration and changes produced by respiration; clothing as it affects 
health; function of the skin, and necessity for cleanliness; bathing; exercise and rest; 
general causes of diseases; infectious diseases and prevention of their spread; digestion 
and assimilation of foods; diseases due to improper nutrition of the various tissues; 
quantity of food required for heat, energy, and tissue. 

The class uses the school laboratory. Demonstrations are given with microscopes, 
digestion experiments, models, and charts. 

CIVIL GOVERNMENT 

The practical application of the provisions of the state and federal constitutions are 
studied with a view of making all students more valuable as citizens. Township and 
county governments are studied in some detail. 

UNITED STATES HISTORY 

The subject is reviewed and detail studies made of the progress of the country with 
text and reference books, during the second year of the course. 

ENGLISH AND LIBRARY READING 

These two subjects are taken together. The work in English is adapted to the needs 
of the classes, but attention is given to correct expression and usage rather than to exhaus- 
tive study of technical grammar. Literary masterpieces are made the chief foundation 
for English study. Library books are read by all students, and all are urged to read 
several good books each term. The selection of books is approved by teacher in charge. 
Reports of this reading are made in class. 



74 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION 

APPENDIX B 

THE MINNESOTA AGRICULTURAL HIGH SCHOOL 
ITS PURPOSE 

It is the aim of the School of Agriculture to train its students to become useful citizens 
as well as good farmers and housewives. 

The home life of the students at University Farm is supervised by members of the 
faculty, and it is the aim to provide such interests outside the regular school work, as will 
assist in rounding out the characters of the young men and women. Literary societies 
afford opportunities for experience in writing, public .speaking, and debate. The faculty 
assist at the receptions and social gatherings which provide social pleasures and experience. 
In the work of the Young Men's Christian Association and the Young Women's Christian 
Association there are opportunities for training in co-operative religious activity. Student 
and alumni clubs, and organizations, and a progressive periodical, The Farm Students' 
Review, published by the alumni, aid in teaching the students how to work for the better- 
ment of agricultural conditions. 

The school of agriculture offers a practical course of study designed to fit young 
men and young women for successful farm life, and it serves as a preparatory school for 
the college of agriculture. 

For the young people who cannot pursue the full college course the school supplies 
a training in the general branches, supplementary to the grammar school work, and a 
thoro course in the leading branches of agricultural knowledge, put in practical form, 
by means of the constant application of lessons in the field, laboratory, or workshop. 
The methods employed are always practical. The teaching is so conducted as to educate 
the students toward the farm, and to develop in them a love for farm life, by showing 
them the possibilities of such a life. The school has been successful in this respect, and 
over eighty per cent, of its graduates take up agricultural occupations upon leaving the 
school. 

The details of this work, the division of the time for the various subjects, and the 
range of work required of the students, will be found outlined in the following pages. 

Thru the endowments and appropriations, of state and national government, the 
school is maintained without tuition charge, except an entrance fee of $5 to residents 
and $10 to non-residents, and the co-operative arrangements are so conducted that the stu- 
dents are able to secure excellent board at low rates. 

The young men and women of the state, who desire to become farm home makers, 
are cordially invited to enter the course at the school of agriculture. They are urged to 
come with suitable preparation — that is, the complete mastery of the common school 
branches; previous farm experience; and to come with the intention to do earnest and 
conscientious work. 

ADMISSION 

All male students are required to have had six months farm practice before entrance. 

Applicants for admission will be examined in English grammar, arithmetic, history 
of the United States, and geography, unless they present state certificates, or approved 
county diplomas, showing that they have completed the eighth grade work in these sub- 
jects. Students from the city or village schools will not be admitted unless, in addition 
to the above requirements, they present certificates from the principals of such schools 
showing completion of eighth-grade work and honorable standing in deportment. Appli- 
cants whose home schools do not afford complete instruction in these common branches, 
may be admitted with not more than two conditions, which. must be removed, according 
to instructions given the student upon admission. State High School Board certificates 
are accepted for work in English, physiology, algebra, geometry and civics. 



INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION IN RURAL SCHOOLS 



75 



Students applying for admission after the opening of the term will, in addition to the 
regular entrance examinations, be required to show proficiency in the work done by the 
class up to the time of their application. Those who cannot enter by the first of Novem- 
ber should wait until the beginning of the winter term. 



FEES 

With the exception of an entrance fee of $5 to residents, or $10 to non-residents, the 
school makes no charge. All other expenses are arranged by co-opera'tion of the students. 

EXPENSES 

The school expense for the year does not exceed $85. This amount does not include 
the cost of the required military suit for boys, traveling or personal expense. 

The cost to the student for board, heat, light and laundry is the actual cost of main- 
taining the table and caring for the house. This does not exceed $3 per week. The school 
year covers a period of twenty-four weeks. 

REQUIREMENTS FOR GRADUATION 

First, the completion of the prescribed course of study with an honorable standing 
in deportment. 

Second, an essay of not less than one thousand words upon a topic connected with 
agriculture or home economics. 

Third, for- young men, a practical experience in field work at the University farm 
or elsewhere, as shall appear in reports received from responsible sources. 



♦Blacksmithing [2^] 

♦Carpentry [2 J] 

Military drill [2] 

Agriculture [3] 

Gymnasium [1] 



COURSE OF STUDY 

first (c) year: first term 

Agricultural Botany [5] 
♦Drawing [2] 
Music 
English [5] 



♦Laundering [2] 

Physical culture [2] 

♦Sewing [3] 

Social culture [1] 
Field agriculture [3] 



SECOND TERM 

Agricultural botany [5] 
♦Farm accounts [2 J] 
Music or literary society work 
Comparative physiology [5] 
♦♦Study of breeds [4] 
*Carpentry [2^] 
♦Drawing (farm buildings) [2] 
*Blacksmithing [2^] 

Military drill [2] 

Breeds of horses [1] 

Gymnasium [1] 



fCooking [2] 

♦Drawing (farm houses) [2] 

Physical culture [2] 



* Figures in brackets indicate the number of hours per week in which the subject is pursued, 
in subjects marked thus* extends through double time in the daily program. 

t Three periods. 

** Work outside of class not required. 



All work 



7<? 



NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION 



*Stock judging [i] 

Breeding [2] 
Military drill [2] 
Gymnasium [1] 



second (b) year: first term 

English [1] 

Agricultural physics [5] 

Dairy chemistry [2] 

C Dairy lectures 

*Dairy husbandry [2JH Dairy practice 

[ Dairy breeds 

Fruit growing [3] 

Music 

Farm mathematics [5] 



*Cooking [2] 

Household art [1] 

Physical culture [2] 

♦Sewing [2] 



SECOND TERM 



Field crops [5] 

Military drill [2] 

Gymnasium [1] 



English [1] 
Agricultural chemistry [5] 

(Dairy stock lectures 
Dairy practice 
Dairy feeding 
Music 
Agricultural physics [5] 
Vegetable gardening [3] 

♦Cooking [2] 

Home management [1] 

Physical culture [2] 

♦Sewing [2] 



THIRD (A) YEAR: FIRST TERM 

Agricultural chemistry [7] 
Forestry [3] 
Music, Chorus, and Quartettes 
Entomology and zoology [5] 
Poultry [3] 
Algebra [5] Optional 
Handling grain and machinery [1] 
♦Veterinary science [2 J] 
Gymnasium [1] 

SECOND TERM 

Civics or geometry [4] 
Plant propagation [3] 
Algebra [5] Optional 

Dressing and curing meats [1] 

♦Stock judging [1] 

Feeding [3] 

Soils and fertilizers [5] 

♦Veterinary science [2^] 



♦Cooking [2] 
♦Sewing [2] 



Meats [1] 

Home economy [1] 

♦Cooking [3] 

Domestic chemistry [3] 

Domestic hygiene [1] 

♦Sewing [3] 



ASSEMBLY 



On each school day at 11:40 a. m. the students assemble in the chapel. After the 
opening exercises, brief talks are given by the principal, members of the faculty, or invited 
guests. 

Members of the graduating class will, at this period, discuss the best books in litera- 
ture and articles on public questions which appear in the leading magazines. 

This plan gives to the students, in the course of the year, many things which will 
fit them to meet the demands of citizenship in the rural communities. 

* Figures in brackets indicate the number of hours per week in which the subject is pursued. All work 
in subjects marked thus * extends through double time in the daily program. 



INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION IN RURAL SCHOOLS 77 

COURSES OF INSTRUCTION 

AGRICULTURAL BOTANY 

This subject is taught with special reference to its bearing upon the everyday problems 
that present themselves to the farmer and gardener. It is profusely illustrated with flowers 
and plants from the greenhouses and nursery. Some instruction is given in the use of 
the compound microscope. Students are thus enabled to study intelligently, in an ele- 
mentary way, the tissues of plants. By this means they get a clear idea of the general 
principles of plant structure and vegetable physiology. 

AGRICULTURAL CHEMISTRY 

In agricultural chemistry one term is given to the study of the elements and com- 
pounds which are of most importance in agriculture. This work is planned to prepare 
the student for intelligent study of the subject of the chemistry of foods, soils, and fer- 
tilizers, and at the same time to familiarize him with the more important chemical changes 
which take place in everyday life. Laboratory practice forms a prominent feature of 
the work in agricultural chemistry. In the chemistry of foods, the composition of plant 
and animal bodies, the chemistry of the plant and of its food and growth, the chemistry 
of animal nutrition, digestibility and value of foods, and the laws governing the economic 
uses of foods, are some of the subjects considered. The composition and the utilization 
of farm crops for food purposes, and the application of the principles of chemistry to plant 
and animal life form the basis of this work. 

AGRICULTURAL PHYSICS 

The general principles of the science are taught, special stress being laid upon those 
which to the greatest extent enter into the business of the farmer. About half the time 
is devoted to experimental work, which includes capillarity of soil; diffusion and osmosis 
of gases and liquids; heating, lighting, and ventilation; farm machinery in particular, 
pumps, eveners — especially three- and four-horse, pulleys, milk-testers, centrifugals, incu- 
bators, wind-mills, steam- and gasoline-engines; friction and lubricants; tensile strength 
of wire and binding twine of different grades; lightning and lightning protection. The 
foregoing indicates the character of the work, the attempt being to give the student an 
acquaintance with the laws of nature that he may act with reason and work to advantage. 

AGRICULTURE 

Soils; selecting and planning farms; subduing the fields; drainage; irrigation; 
fences; roads; buildings; water supply; groves; farm life and the relations of general 
science in agriculture. 

Farm management: Remodeling farm plans; rotation of crops; manuring; pro- 
duction and management of farm manures, green manure crops, and the place of com- 
mercial fertilizers in field management in various parts of the state; farm administration, 
management of the fields in relation to fertility, to weeds, to yields, to live stock and to 
profits. Keeping weeds down by helpful crop rotations, careful field work, and good 
methods of farming generally; study of botany and habits of the various species of harmful 
weeds; methods of destroying each class of weeds. 

ALGEBRA 

Algebra is optional during the third year. This work covers Well's New Higher 
Algebra through simple equations. Special attention is given to literal notation, negative 
numbers, the equation and factoring. 

BLACKSMITHING 

The students are instructed in the management of the forge and fire, and in bending, 
shaping, and welding iron and steel. They are required to make links, rings, hooks, bolts, 
clevises, whifHetree-irons, tongs, cold-chisels, punches; in short, to become familiar with 
all the operations necessary to enable them to do their own repair work when they return 
to the farm. Particular attention is given to rapid and accurate welding and to the shaping 
and tempering of steel tools. The forges used are such as any farmer can make for him- 
self, and each student is taught to make his own tools, so that he will be able to furnish 
his shop with very little outlay. 

BREEDS OF HORSES 

The aim in teaching this subject is to familiarize the students with the types of horses 
best representing the breeds adapted to the conditions that obtain in the state. Score 
cards are used, and standards of excellence made for comparative work. 



78 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION 

BREEDING 

Students receive instruction in the principles that govern breeding; on the influences 
that affect heredity and in the care and management of breeding stock. Pedigree receives 
careful consideration, and each student is required to make out pedigrees of two or more 
pure bred animals. They are also required to become familiar with methods of keeping 
live stock records of all kinds. 

CARPENTRY 

Instruction is given by means of lectures on the care and use of the common carpenter 
tools, such as should be found on every farm; also on methods of farm building con- 
struction, framing, laying out rafters, stairways, estimating building material, painting, 
etc. In the carpenter shop students are required to make such exercises as will give them 
some practice in using carpenter tools. They are required to make mortise joints, splices, 
drawing boards, hammer handles, eveners, cupboards, etc. 

Each student is required to file his own saws, sharpen his planes, chisels, etc., and to 
lay out rafters for buildings. 

CIVICS 

During the last term of the course students receive instruction in this science, and 
graduate with a good understanding of the origin, necessity, nature and various forms of 
government, and the machinery employed to carry on public works, establish justice and 
provide for the common defense; of the organization and management of local institutions, 
the town, the village, the city, and the county; the manner in which states are created 
and the affairs administered; the three departments — legislative, judicial and executive — 
and the functions of each; the interdependence of the state and its citizens, as well as the 
powers and obligations of each, by due attention to which the state may be strengthened 
and the condition of its citizens ameliorated. 

The relation of the state to the general government; the constitution and the powers 
it confers; and the provisions for amendments, are taught. The more important prin- 
ciples of commercial law, including contracts, agency, partnership, corporations, and 
commercial paper, receive attention. Instruction is also given in the United States method 
of surveying public lands. 

COMPARATIVE PHYSIOLOGY 

During the first year students take one term of applied physiology. This is an effort 
to connect technical physiology with the necessities of everyday life. The work includes 
a study of the general plan and structure of the body and the various individual tissues 
of which it is composed; also sources of heat and energy, digestion, and the relation of 
food materials to the various tissues of the body. Considerable attention is given to 
diseased and innutritious foods, food adulterations and narcotics. The circulation is 
studied with especial reference to the relation of the blood and lymph to tissue nutrition 
and tissue waste. 

Accidents, including poisoning, are studied for the purpose of giving a practical 
knowledge of what to do in emergencies. Considerable attention is given to the subject 
of clothing, the various materials in use being considered with reference to fitness for 
special purposes. Some time is also given to the study of common physiology, of the 
organs of circulation, digestion, respiration, nervous system, and the relations of bacteria 
to the common diseases, especially such diseases as consumption, typhoid fever, etc. A 
brief study is also given to the subject of digestion in the lower animals. 

The class work is illustrated by means of large charts, skeletons, manikins, and 
dissections. Important points of difference between human and animal physiology are 
pointed out in preparation for the third year's work in the veterinary class. Matters of 
home and personal hygiene are interwoven with the physiology work. 



The course in cooking extends through five terms of the curriculum as given below, 
with the subjects covered in each term: 

(C) Second term — Kitchen management; cafe of cooking utensils and silverware; 
measuring and invoicing; cooking vegetables, cereals and breads. 

(B) First term — Cooking meats, preserving fruits and vegetables. 

(B) Second term — Eggs, beverages, soups, salads and table service. 

(A) First term — Marketing and care of foods; dairy dishes, made over dishes, invalid 
cooking. 

(A) Second term — Desserts, food rations, dietaries, confections, bills of fare and 
dining room. 



INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION IN RURAL SCHOOLS 79 

DAIRY CHEMISTRY 

The chemical and allied changes which take place in the handling of milk and its 
manufacture into butter and cheese, and the application of these principles to the pro- 
duction of milk and its products form the basis of this work. 

DAIRY HUSBANDRY 

Farm dairy lectures. — A course of lectures is given in farm dairying, giving instruction 
in the care of milk and utensils, explaining the principles involved in creaming milk by 
the gravity and centrifugal processes and giving full instruction in regard to running farm 
separators and the manufacture of butter and cheese in the farm dairy. 

Dairy practice. — Students receive practical training in the most advanced methods 
of creaming milk, ripening cream, churning, working and packing butter, the manufacture 
of sweet curd cheese, and measuring the value of milk by the Babcock test and lactometer. 
This practice work begins the third week of the first term and continues through the school 
year. 

Dairy stock. — During the last half of the first term students receive instruction in 
regard to characteristics of the various breeds of dairy cattle, their origin and comparative 
adaptability for the dairy. Lectures are given upon the points desirable in animals 
intended for the dairy. The students have practice work in judging dairy stock. 

Feeding.— During the second term lectures are given covering both the scientific 
and practical phases underlying the principles of feeding. Practice work is given in 
compounding rations and estimating the comparative value of food stuffs. 

DOMESTIC CHEMISTRY 

The combination of human foods to form balanced rations, dietary studies of families, 
cost and value of foods, losses in the cooking and preparation of foods, cereal food products, 
animal food products, adulterations of foods and their detection, fuels, soaps, dye stuffs 
and colors, composition of common household utensils, the household water supply, 
preparation of home made baking powders, bakers' chemicals, composition, food value 
and characteristics of tea, coffee, chocolate, cocoa, molasses, honey, vinegar and spices, 
the grading and testing of wheat flour and the chemistry of bread making, form the essential 
parts of this work. 

DOMESTIC HYGIENE 

Several lectures by a physician will be given upon maidenhood, maternity and infancy. 
These special lectures will be supplemented by the regular lectures which consider the 
health of the family as dependent upon pure food, pure water, personal cleanliness and 
proper habits as well as upon heredity. The aim is to impress the truth that a knowledge 
of and obedience to the laws of hygiene are essential to the preservation as well as the 
restoration of health. 

DRAWING 

The student is taught the practical value of drawing for the purpose of designing 
and arranging buildings, machinery, etc. He makes drawings of the shop exercises, 
then works from his own drawings, thereby learning the application. 

Designs are made for dwellings, barns, outbuildings, and machinery. As practical 
subjects for their designs students are requested to bring from home data for plans of build- 
ings needed on their farms. Estimates are made of the amount of material required and 
cost of construction. 

DRESSING AND CURING MEATS 

The instruction given the boys consists of demonstration lectures on the preparation 
of meat for farm use. They are required in addition to take two weeks' practice in dress- 
ing, cutting, and curing such meat as is likely to be used on the farm. Work is also given 
them in selecting and judging fat stock, and in judging dressed meats. 



(C) The first year's work in English consists of almost daily practice in the simpler 
forms of composition. Applicants for admission to the C class should be familiar with 
the inflections of nouns, pronouns, and verbs, the definitions and classifications of phrases 
and clauses and the common case constructions. 

(B) Once a week thruout the school year the members of the B class will prepare 
short essays, and submit them for criticism. 

(A) At the option of the English Department a series of literary programs will be 
presented in chapel by the members of the graduating class. The numbers will include 



80 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION 

abstracts of leading magazine articles, biographical sketches, book reviews, and selections 
from fiction; special prominence will be given to authors depicting American life. 

ENTOMOLOGY AND ZOOLOGY 

The class in entomology receives instruction of a practical nature. The course is 
divided as follows: 

Classification of insects; habits and life histories of injurious forms with special 
attention to insect pests found in Minnesota. The nature of different insecticides and 
methods of application are discussed. The student spends some time in becoming 
acquainted with the appearance and habits of beneficial insects. Each student must 
collect fifty insects representing at least twenty-five different kinds. 

FARM ACCOUNTS 

The work in accounts is applied to the transactions which the student meets in the 
various duties on the farm. He is taught to keep his accounts, that he may know at any 
time the profit or loss of any department of his business, and is thus enabled to plan 
intelligently. 

FARM ARITHMETIC 

Instruction in this subject consists of the application. of its principles to all kinds of 
farm problems, where measurements of material, extension, capacity, etc., are required. 
The student is prepared also to handle with ease the mathematics of the technical courses 
in the school. 

FEEDING 

The principles of feeding as applied to the production of horses, beef, cattle, sheep, 
and swine, are taught. Special attention is given to the choice and preparation of food 
for animals during different periods of growth and during the time they are used for breed- 
ing purposes and to summer feeding and pasturage. Practice is given in compounding 
rations that will include in the best manner the food stuffs commonly produced on the farm. 
Practical lessons in feeding are given at the barns under the supervision of an experienced 
feeder. Each student thus learns the requirements of each class of stock. 

FIELD AGRICULTURE 

Selected portions of agriculture and field crops for girls. 

FIELD CROPS 

Place in the rotation; preparation of the land; planting; cultivation; harvesting; 
storing and marketing of grains, field roots, fiber crops, sugar crops, grasses, clovers, and 
other forage crops; planting, care and use of pastures and meadows. 

Laws of heredity and variation; possibility of increasing values; improvement and 
formation of varieties; general facts as to methods of breeding; specific plans of breeding 
leading field crops. 

FORESTRY 

Includes the consideration of the formation and care of wind breaks and shelter belts ; 
the laying out and planting of home grounds; discussion of the hardiness, habits and 
value of our native and introduced trees; and the methods of propagating them. 

FRUIT GROWING 

Fruit growing is taught with reference to raising fruit for market and in the home 
garden. 

GEOMETRY 

Geometry is offered in the second term of the third year, as an elective in place of 
civics to those who wish to prepare for a college course. This work covers the first two 
books of Well's Essentials of Plane Geometry. 

GYMNASIUM WORK 

The gymnasium is a large, well-lighted, two-story brick building. It is well supplied 
with fight and heavy apparatus for general gymnastic and athletic exercises, together 
with such appliances as are necessary for the development of a symmetrical body. Besides 
being fitted up with the finest apparatus, it possesses space and equipment for sprinting, 
pole-vaulting, hurdling, high and broad jumping, shot putting, etc. 

Class work in physical training is required of all undergraduate young men not 



INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION IN RURAL SCHOOLS 



excused on account of physical disability. Courses are offered on the heavy apparatus, 
in corrective work, class drills, and athletic training. In addition to the regular class drill, 
a certain part of which consists of training in athletic sports, the school is represented by 
a strong basket-ball team, a track athletic team, hand-ball team, and an indoor tennis 
team. 

HANDLING GRAINS AND MACHINERY 

Practical suggestions for the best methods of harvesting, shocking, stacking, and 
storing of cereal grains. Machinery, adaptation of the various kinds, with reference to 
the soil, weeds, season, etc.; adjustment with especial reference to durability, convenience 
in manipulation, etc. 

HOME ECONOMY 

The lectures are a study not only of the just proportion between expenditure and 
income, but of definite proportion in the expenditures made for existence, comfort, culture, 
and philanthropy. A study is made of the sources of income, especially of the income 
from the farm in the form of house, food, and luxuries; the purchase of clothing, house- 
hold stores and furnishings is considered from the standpoint of the suitable. The relation 
of cash and credit to cost is also considered. Attention is given to savings and form of 
investment, a bank account and the use of a check book. Students are required to sub- 
mit an account setting forth in detail the use of a certain named income expended in the 
support of a family for one year, embracing not only every item of necessary home expense, 
but also an outlay made for travel, luxuries, accident, sickness, or other emergencies. 
The habit of keeping a household account is calculated to strengthen the judgment in the 
wise use of money. 

HOME MANAGEMENT 

The subject includes both housekeeping and home-making, and the instruction is 
based on the belief that housekeeping is a business as important as it is difficult, and that 
home-making is the noblest form of human endeavor. The care of the house and house- 
hold belongings, of the food and the clothing, as well as the ordering of family life are 
considered in their relation to an adequate plan for home management. To start the 
student in the right way of becoming mistress' of the business of housekeeping and home- 
making is the end sought. The practical benefit to be derived from the knowledge students 
gain in the cookery, sewing, dairy, laundry, and other classes, is emphasized and shown 
in its relation to an adequate plan for the daily program for the home. 

HOUSEHOLD ART 

Lectures upon house and grounds, noting the distinctive character of the country 
home; the sanitary conditions involved in the selection of the site of the house; also the 
influence of the outlook; an elementary study of architecture in connection with planning 
a house which will provide "a place for everything" required in housekeeping operations 
and family life; instruction in the fundamental value of color, form and design in embody- 
ing beauty; training the taste and emphasizing the laws of hygiene that should influence 
the selection of materials and styles in the finishings and the furnishings of the house. 



The instruction given to the girls in the subject of meats pertains to the selection and 
value of different classes of meat, and to the best methods of curing and preserving. 

LAUNDERING 

In the first term of C year several lectures are given and practice work is provided 
in washing, ironing, starching, polishing, cleaning, and pressing clothing. 



The agricultural library now contains six thousand books and about six thousand 
pamphlets, including reports and bulletins. Aside from the large number of pamphlets 
and other publications of the different agricultural institutions and societies, a large number 
of the most important technical and agricultural magazines are kept on file, bringing 
together all the agricultural literature of any importance. 

The librarian of the United States Department of Agriculture having inaugurated a 
system of co-operation with agricultural college and experiment station libraries, sent an 
assistant-librarian who spent two months reorganizing the agricultural library. Students 
and teachers can now readily find literature desired, in so far as it is collected in the library, 
and the thanks of the department are due to the secretary of agriculture for the valuable 



82 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION 

aid given. Further co-operation with the Department of Agriculture and the Congres- 
sional Library is being arranged. 

LITERARY SOCIETY WORK 

Any student belonging to a recognized society of the school may receive credit in the 
course of study for the work done therein by registering at the beginning of the term, 
and submitting to the teacher in English all essays to be read by such student before the 
literary society and rehearsing to said instructor all essays, readings, or recitations with 
a view to correct pronunciation, expression, etc. 

MILITARY DRILL 

All male students of B and C classes, not physically unfit, are required to attend 
military drill. The students form an infantry battalion of four companies. Students 
are instructed practically in the schools of the soldier and company, extended order and 
military calisthenics, and theoretically in the schools of the soldier and company. Officers 
are selected from class A, non-commissioned officers from classes A and B. 

The battalion is considered a part of the Corps Cadets of the University. 



Instruction is given in this subject, not with the purpose of making trained musicians, 
but to introduce the students to the elementary principles of this art, and to develop in 
them a love for this most valuable factor in home and social life. 

Illustrated lectures, in which music by the masters is used, are given at stated intervals. 

PENMANSHIP 

In penmanship the student is taught to write a plain hand with rapidity and ease. 
Daily drills are given using a free forearm movement. 

PHYSICAL TRAINING 

The work done in this department aims at symmetry, co-ordination and control 
rather than mere physical strength. It is planned to improve the functional activity of 
the body and to counteract and correct tendencies to incorrect development, especially 
those resulting from the artificial life of civilization. The work of the beginning class is 
free hand, based upon Swedish principles, and directed especially to deep breathing, 
correct carriage and posture. The work of the advanced class includes light apparatus 
aesthetic movements for suppleness in action and grace. Vigorous games are given to 
both classes. 

PLANT PROPAGATION 

In this subject the principles underlying the development of cultivated varieties of 
plants and seed testing are taught; also the propagation of plants by seed, cuttings, grafting, 
and budding. The work of the class-room is illustrated by the orchards, nurseries, forest 
plantations, gardens, and greenhouses on the grounds of the experiment station and by 
visits to commercial nurseries and greenhouses near by. 



The instruction in this subject will include the following topics: History and charac- 
teristics of the leading breeds of poultry; breeding, feeding and management of fowls for 
eggs and for the market; planning, building, and arrangement of poultry houses; manag- 
ing incubators and brooders. A model poultry house, containing hens of the most improved 
breeds, incubator cellar, workroom, etc., has been provided, where experimental work 
and practical instruction are carried on. 



The course in sewing consists of five terms' work. During the first term the student 
receives instruction in the elements of sewing, including different stitches, seams, hems, 
darning, etc., also practical talks on the use and care of all the implements belonging to 
the sewing basket. The second year's work consists of cutting and making plain garments, 
drafting of underwear, children's clothing, shirt waists and cotton dresses, taught by a 
very simple method, using only the tape line and square. 

The third year the more difficult work of dressmaking is taken up; drafting pat- 
terns, cutting and fitting of dresses. Lectures are given on textiles, wearing and selec- 
tion of materials. The study of harmony of color is given special attention. The 
course is designed 'to make each graduate capable of doing all kinds of sewing required 
in the home. 



INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION IN RURAL SCHOOLS 83 

SOCIAL CULTURE 

A course of lectures is given on the usages of society, including manners, behavior, 
the voice, conversation, forms of address, invitations, etc. Suggestions are made in refer- 
ence to reading, literary taste, and the choice of books. Especial stress is given to the 
thought that the family life ought to be the highest expression of good society, and that 
next to the power of thinking correctly is the power of approaching others with ease and 
speaking with tactful directness. 

SOILS AND FERTILIZERS 

The composition of soils, and their properties, the sources of plant food, the kinds 
and amounts of food required by crops and the best ways of supplying these demands, 
the various forms in which plant food exists in the soil, farm manures, their uses and action 
upon the soil, the income and outgo of fertility from the farm, soil exhaustion and soil 
improvement, the rotation of crops, as based upon the chemistry of soils and the principles 
governing the conservation of the fertility of the soil form the more important features of 
this subject. 

STOCK JUDGING 

Score cards are used to an extent sufficient to familiarize students with that method 
of judging, and special efforts are made to do systematic and closely critical work in the 
selection of animals representative of the breeds and for breeding purposes. Living 
specimens are used and rings will be made up for the student contests in stock judging. 
In connection with the work in dressing and curing meats, the judgment passed on live 
animals for the block is verified by score cards, judgment of the dressed carcasses and by 
actual block tests. These tests are made by the students and bring out the percentage 
of meat in each commercial cut of the carcass. The quality of meat is passed upon in 
this connection by experts, and a careful report made to ascertain the type of animals 
best calculated for the production of the most meat of the best quality. 

STUDY OF BREEDS , 

This work covers a discussion of characteristics of the leading pedigreed breeds of 
beef cattle, sheep and swine adapted to northwestern conditions; the environments to 
which each breed is especially suited; and practice in the selection of animals that are 
representative of the various breeds. 

VEGETABLE GARDENING 

Vegetable gardening embraces the study of garden tillage, irrigation, and rotation of 
crops; transplanting; formation and care of hotbeds; study of garden insects; and the 
growth of various vegetable crops. 

VETERINARY SCIENCE 

During the A year the student takes up a course of study in veterinary medicine, 
the purpose of which is to fit him for intelligent care of his farm stock. In this course 
the teaching is done by means of lectures, distribution of mimeographed lecture notes 
after each lecture, reviews and clinical work at the hospital maintained for this purpose. 
Lectures are illustrated by means of charts, manikin of horse, skeleton of horse, and 
various other appliances. 

The lectures consist of a series on each of the following subjects: Elementary anatomy; 
elementary pathology;' cause and prevention of diseases; diagnosis and treatment of 
common diseases, examination for soundness, and a final short course on common medi- 
cines, studying their effects, uses and doses. At the hospital clinics students are enabled 
to examine and care for a variety of cases and to learn the elements of diagnosis for the 
more common diseases and forms of lameness. 



APPENDIX C 



PREPARED BY W. M. HAYS, BY REQUEST OF THE COMMITTEE 
INDUSTRIAL COURSE IN THE CONSOLIDATED RURAL SCHOOL, THE 
AGRICULTURAL HIGH SCHOOL AND THE AGRICULTURAL COL- 
LEGE ARTICULATED INTO A UNIFIED SCHEME 
The articulation of studies in agriculture and in home economics or, as it is more 
often called, domestic economy, thru the consolidated rural school, the agricultural high 
school, and the agricultural college, heretofore has not been attempted. To demonstrate 



84 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION 

that this is practicable, and to frame a basic attempt from which the several school 
faculties may work in articulating schools of the three classes named, the outlines below 
are presented. These include also the studies not relating to agriculture or home economics, 
that some idea of proportions as well as of placement and gradation may be shown. The 
published course of study for the rural schools of Wisconsin, the course of study for the 
Minnesota Agricultural High School and the collegiate agricultural course of the Uni- 
versity of Minnesota were used as the basis of this outline, with additions, omissions, 
and changes to suit. While the articulation was kept prominently in mind, the plan was 
pursued of giving in each lower grade those practical things which promise to be especially 
valuable to the pupil who drops out. It is hoped that this outline will also be an aid to 
those who are responsible for the courses of study in rural schools of smaller unit and 
those interested in formulating courses of study in agricultural high schools smaller than 
the Minnesota Agricultural School, after which the high-school course of this scheme is 
modeled. 

That these three schools designed to educate for country life can be articulated, as 
the city graded schools, the city high school (including the city mechanics arts high school) 
and general and technical courses of the state university, or other college, designed for 
city life are articulated, is made evident by this outline. It will be seen that this scheme 
will also enable pupils to transfer from country school to city school, or vice versa, up to 
the end of the second high-school year without great loss, thus better unifying all schools, 
of country and town. 

It is proving no more difficult to grade the instruction in agriculture and in home 
economics in primary, secondary, and collegiate courses of study than it was to distribute 
work in English or history thruout these three classes of schools; tho as yet, owing to the 
newness of these subjects, the process has not proceeded so far in the former as in the 
latter. In blocking out this scheme of nature study, agriculture, manual training 'and 
home economics for country youth, it is understood that any given school must adapt it, 
to its own conditions, giving such parts suited to its own grades as its surroundings, equip- 
ment and teaching force may render practicable, arranging for articulation with other 
schools where possible. Thus the teacher in the one -room rural school might be able 
to take up a few of the nature-study courses designated for the first five grades and some 
of the courses in agriculture and home economics, outlined for the sixth, seventh, and 
eighth years. The teachers in the two- or three-room rural school could give still more 
of this work; and those pupils who are able to attend the agricultural high school would 
thus be better prepared there to take the advanced work provided in science, manual 
training, agriculture and home economics. 

The consolidated rural school provided with a teacher qualified in agriculture and a 
teacher trained to instruct in home economics, and two or more teachers to assist in 
the general instruction, could care for the entire ten grades. Even here, however, the 
course as outlined would necessarily need to be modified to suit local needs, equipment, 
and preparation of the teaching force. 

Books and other helps on nature study, agriculture and home economics for use in 
these variously organized rural schools and following the general scheme outlined, could 
be provided by makers of publications and apparatus, and could be fitted into the respec- 
tive grades by any school organization using them. 

The agricultural high-school course cannot be at once completely reorganized in county 
agricultural high schools or even in large agricultural high schools in state districts of 
larger size. Each school will be compelled to receive pupils with various stages of prepa- 
ration in the general school subjects and often with no school instruction in agricultural 
and home economics subjects, tho usually with more or less careful home training and 
experience in these practical lines; and it has been found that a large percentage of 
those who enter with but poor preparation become strong students and continue to gradua- 



INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION IN RURAL SCHOOLS 85 

tion. On the other hand, local conditions, as the short time the pupils will remain in the 
agricultural high school and the limitations in the way of equipment and teaching force, 
will make it quite impossible to secure uniformity in requirements for graduation. In 
time it may be possible to approximate the uniformity reached in this respect in city high 
schools, tho such uniformity is by no means a matter of prime importance. The main 
thing sought should be to give more training to all, however early or late in the course 
they may drop out of school. The course below is given only as a sort of guide and a 
standard which all such schools may strive to reach. Where a state can organize consoli- 
dated rural schools fully developed according to the general plan given, it is believed ihat 
the agricultural high school may be given its definite portion of school work much as 
outlined, and that the agricultural collegiate course will develop strongly and naturally 
beside other collegiate and university courses. Making practical education universal in 
the lower schools is the real problem, and the chief function of the higher schools is to 
make possible some technical education in the lower schools where all pupils may receive 
some benefit. 

The courses in agriculture, forestry and home economics in agricultural colleges are 
gradually approaching a uniform standard, with requirements in amount similar to those 
established for entrance into the undergraduate course in universities. The desire to 
rank with other institutions is, however, of less importance to the state than that the college 
shall prepare teachers for lower schools, leaders in the industry of agriculture and in 
home-making, and investigators and advanced teachers. Since studies in these technical 
branches are rapidly rising in value as means of education or culture, in addition to their 
technical value, agricultural college courses promise to hold a position beside the general 
courses, if indeed, they shall not be ranked as broader because they both educate and pre- 
pare for definite work. 

CONSOLIDATED RURAL SCHOOL COURSE 

FIRST YEAR 

Reading. Writing. 

Spelling. Music. 

Language. Nature study. 

Number work. General exercises. 

SECOND YEAR 

Reading; using in part themes from Music. 

nature, the farm, and the home. Hygiene. 

Spelling. History. 

Language. Drawing. 

Number work. Nature study. 

Writing. General exercises. 

THIRD YEAR 

Reading; nature stories forming a part. Geography. 

Spelling. Hygiene. 

Language. History. 

Arithmetic. Nature study. 

Writing. General exercises. 
Music. 

FOURTH YEAR 

Reading; country life literature included. Geography; should include the distribu- 

Spelling. tion of farm products. 

Language. Hygiene. 

Arithmetic. Drawing. 

Writing. Nature study. 

Music. Genera] exercises. 



86 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION 

FIFTH YEAR 

Reading; including stories of our country Geography; including in part physical 

and lessons in agriculture and home geography in respect to the work done 

economics. by nature's forces in preparing soils. 

Spelling. History. 

Language. Physiology. 

Arithmetic. Nature study. 

Writing. General exercises. 

Music. Literary society work. 

Drawing. 

SIXTH YEAR 

Reading; lessons should include animal History. 

life and adventure. Drawing. 

Spelling. Physiology; including principles of nutri- 
Language. tion and food values. 

Arithmetic. Co-operative enterprises. 

Writing. Agriculture; ist half-year, the affairs of 
Music. agriculture; 2d half-year, the soil. 

Drawing. General exercises; for boys, wood work; 
Geography. for girls, sewing. 

Physiology. Literary society work. 

SEVENTH YEAR 

Reading and literature. Music. 

Spelling. History. • 

Grammar. Co-operative enterprises. 

Arithmetic. Agriculture; farming schemes and crops. 

Writing. General exercises. 

Geography; combined with physical Literary society work, 
geography. 

EIGHTH YEAR 

Reading and literature. Geography. 

Spelling. History. 

Grammar. Agriculture; animals-practice work. 

Arithmetic; including farm problems, land . General exercises. 

surveying and farm statistics. Literary society work. 
Music. 

Ninth and Tenth, or First Two High School Years are Placed in the Consolidated Rural 

School 

NINTH YEAR (D HIGH SCHOOL YEAR) : FIRST HALF-YEAR 

Agricultural botany (4) 

Elementary algebra (5) 

English (4) 

Drawing — farms and buildings (2) 

Rhetoricals (1) 

Boys Girls 

Rural engineering (3) Sewing (2) 

Agriculture (1) 

SECOND HALF-YEAR 

Agricultural botany (4) 

Elementary algebra (5) 

English (4) 

Farm accounts (4) 

Rhetoricals (1) 

Boys Girls 
Fences and farm conveniences (2) Cooking (2) 



INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION IN RURAL SCHOOLS 87 

TENTH YEAR (C HIGH SCHOOL YEAR): FIRST HALF-YEAR 

Plane geometry (5) 

Physiology — foods and feeds (4) 

Civics (4) 

General history (5) 

Rhe toxicals (1) 

Boys Girls 

Judging stock and seeds (1) Sewing (2) 

Carpentry (2 J) 

SECOND HALF-YEAR 

Plane geometry (5) 

English (4) 

Agricultural mathematics (4) 

General history (5) 

Rhetoricals (1) 

Boys Girls 

Judging stock and seeds (1) Sewing (2) 

Carpentry (2§) 

AGRICULTURAL HIGH SCHOOL 

ELEVENTH YEAR (B YEAR) : FIRST HALF-YEAR 

Fruit growing (3) 

Higher algebra (5) 

Agricultural physics (4) 

Drawing (1) 

Poultry (2) 

Dairy husbandry ■. (2) 

Boys Girls 

Carpentry (2) Social culture (1) 

Military drill (2) Laundering (2) 

Gymnasium (1) Physical culture (2) 

SECOND HALF-YEAR 

Solid geometry (5) 

Elementary chemistry (5) 

Agricultural physics (5) 

Dairy husbandry (2^) 

Boys Girls 

Drawing barns (2) Home management (1) 

Study of breeds (2) Drawing farm houses (1) 

Military drill (2) Sewing (2) 

Gymnasium (1) Physical culture (2) 

TWELFTH YEAR (A YEAR) : FIRST HALF-YEAR 

Chemistry of plants and animals (5) 

Forestry (3) 

Entomology and Zoology (5) 

Dairy chemistry (2) 

Boys Girls 

Breeding animals (2) Cooking (2) 

Veterinary (2 J) Household art (1) 

Blacksmithing (2 J) Sewing (2) 

Military drill (2) Physical culture (2) 

Gymnasium (1) 

SECOND HALF-YEAR 

Plant propagation (3) 

Farm management. (2) 



NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION 



Boys 



Girls 



Breeding crops (i) 

Field crops (2) 

Dressing and curing meats (1) 

Feeding animals (3) 

Soils and fertilizers (5) 

Veterinary (2^) 

Blacksmi thing (2^) 

Military driM ' . . . (2) 

Gymnasium (1) 

The outline below is made somewhat elective, the specific statements following show 
what is included in each of the subjects from among which the student may elect: 



Meats (1) 

English (4) 

Pedagogy (4) 

Cooking (3) 

Sewing (3) 

Home economy (1) 

Dietary studies (3) 

Domestic hygiene (1) 



FRESHMAN YEAR 



A. Required for Graduates of Agricultural High Schools 



FIRST SEMESTER 



Mathematics (4) 

Drawing (4) 

Botany (4) 

German, French or Spanish (4) 

Military drill or Gymnasium (2) 



SECOND SEMESTER 

Mathematics (4) 

Chemistry (2) 

German, French or Spanish (4) 

Botany (4) 

Military drill or Gymnasium (2) 

English literature (2) 

Note. — A modern language elected must be pursued for the full two years. 

Graduates of City High Schools take in lieu of the above freshman course a full year 
of prescribed technical work in agriculture or home economics in an approved agri- 
cultural high school, choosing technical subjects as from the agricultural high-school 
course given above. 



SOPHOMORE YEAR 



FIRST SEMESTER 



Rhetoric. (3) 

Agricultural chemistry (4) 

German, French, or Spanish (3) 

Agricultural physics. . . . ' (2) 

Military drill or Gymnasium (2) 

Zoology (3) 



SECOND SEMESTER 



Geology (3) 

Zoology (3) 

Agricultural chemistry .... .(4) 

German, French, or Spanish (3) 

Agricultural Physics (2) 

Rhetoric (1) 

Military drill or Gymnasium (1) 



JUNIOR YEAR 



FIRST SEMESTER 



English (3) 

Elective, academic (3) 

Elective, academic (3) 

Elective technic, major (4) 

Elective technic, minor (4) 



SECOND SEMESTER 



Agricultural economics (3) 

Elective, academic (3) 

Elective, academic (3) 

Elective technic, major (4) 

Elective technic, minor (4) 



SENIOR YEAR 



FIRST SEMESTER 



Elective, academic 

Elective, academic 

Elective, academic 

Elective technic, major. 
Elective technic, minor. 



SECOND SEMESTER 



.(3) Elective, academic 

.(3) Elective, academic 

. (3) Elective, academic 

. (4) Elective technic, major. 

.(4) Elective technic, minor. 



■(3) 
•(3) 
(3) 
•(4) 
•(4) 



[f Note. — The figures in brackets indicate the number of weekly recitations of the 
respective studies. Minor agricultural subjects cover not more than two semesters' work 
in the junior and senior years. The major agricultural work subjects, including a gradu- 
ating thesis and a year of practical work, is to be carried through the junior and senior 
years. 

L OF C, 



INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION IN RURAL SCHOOLS 

APPENDIX D* 
SYLLABUS OF ELEMENTARY COURSE IN AGRICULTURE** 



i. The Plant. . 



I. PLANT PRODUCTION 
Structure 



Physiology- 
how plants 



Feed 
Grow 



Reproduce 
by 



Seeds 



Bulbs 
Cuttings 
Grafts 
Buds 



Trace life history 
from seed to 
seed, noting pol- 
lination, crosses, 
hybrids, etc. 



The Environment of the 
Plant 



Climate 



Soil 



Light 
Heat 
Moisture 
Air 



Study these in 
relation t o 

plant growth 



Nature and functions 
Origin 



Properties 



Classification 



Temperature 

Aeration 

Moisture 



Distinguish be- 
tween light and 
heavy soils, 
porous and im- 
pervious soils, 
soils that bake 
and those 
which do not, 
etc. 

Main classes, such 
as sand, clay, 
loam, peat, silt 



Man- 
age- 
ment 



Tillage 

Drainage 

Irrigation 



Enrich- 
ment 



Farm m a n- 

ures 
Commercial 

fertilizers 



Impoverishment 
Cropping — rotation 

♦From Circular No. 60, issued by United States Department of Agriculture, December, 1904; published 
by permission of the United States Department of Agriculture. 

**In this syllabus the same general arrangement of topics has been made as in the higher courses out- 
lined by this committee, but it is of course to be understood that the treatment of these topics by the teacher 
in the common school should be brief, simple, and elementary. 



9° 



NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION 



3. Farm Crops. 



4. Fruits 



Classification 



Individual crops 
(Study one or 
more of the ■ 
leading crops 
of the region.) 



Include only the most general 
classes, such as cereals, grasses, 
legumes, tubers, etc. 



Name 

Place in classification 

Varieties 



Culture 



Preparation of soil 
Selection of seed 
Testing of Seed 
Planting 
Cultivating 



Protection J 
from pests j 

Harvesting 
Marketing 



Weeds 

Diseases 

Insects 

Birds 

Mammals 



One or more of the leading fruits of the region should 
be studied in the same manner as farm crops. 



II. ANIMAL PRODUCTION 



1. Domestic Animals — Their 
Types and Breeds 



Horses 



Cattle 



Sheep 

Swine. 

Poultry 

Bees 



Draft 
Trotting 
Roadsters, etc. 

Dairy 
Beef 



Wool 
Mutton 



Bring out leading char- 
acteristics of one or 
two leading breeds of 
each type represented 
in a given region 



2. Care and Management 
Animals 



of Domestic 



Feeding 



Hygiene 



Only the most general state- 
ments regarding the food 
requirements of different 
animals and for different 
purposes, and exercises in 
compounding rations 
suitable to a given region 

Water supply 

Exercise 

Shade 

Condition of f Comfort 
inclosures \ Ventilation 
as to [ Cleanliness 



1. The Dairy Cow..., 



Preparation and care of product 
Marketing product 



HI. DAIRYING 

Tv f A more detailed study of the dairy type than was 
^^ \ given under animal production 

Feeding, care, and management 



INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION IN RURAL SCHOOLS 



91 



2. Milk.... 



Composition 



Handling 



Uses 



How determined 
Relation to price 

r Stables 
.-., ,. I Cows 

Cleanliness Attendants 

Vessels 
Straining 
Aerating 
Cooling 

For consumption as milk or 
cream 

f Putting in 
For condensing \ cans and 

[ hauling 
For cheese making 



For butter mak- 
ing 



Creaming 



Relation to souring 
tainting of milk 



Putting up in cans or 
bottles. Marketing 



By setting in pans 
By use of separator 

Temperature 
Kinds of churns 



Churning 

Salting 

Coloring 

Working 

Packing 

Marketing 

IV. RURAL ENGINEERING 

It is not thought that the pupils in a rural common school will be prepared to study 
the problems involved in rural engineering from the view point of the engineer, but it is 
hoped that there will be some opportunity to examine the plans and structure of good 
types of buildings, fences, roads, etc., and to devote some time to drawing simple plans of 
farms, buildings, and other works. The importance of good roads, hygienic water supply 
and sewage disposal, and of caring for farm machinery should be emphasized. 

f Size and location of fields 
1. Farm Plans \ Location of buildings, fences, drains, 

[ and roads 

House 
Barn 



2. Construction of Buildings and Works. • 



Buildings 



Outbuildings 
Fences 



Water system 
Sewage system 
Roads 

f Only in regions 
Irrigating system \ where irrigation 
[ is practiced 

Interesting facts regarding the devel- 
opment of farm machinery in a way 
to encourage the more general use 
of improved machinery 

The importance of caring for and 
repairing farm machinery 

V. RURAL ECONOMICS 

Most of the topics under rural economics are too broad to be included in a brief course 
in agriculture, or too complex for the comprehension of common school pupils. It is 
thought, however, that some of the general principles of marketing and farm accounts 



3. Farm Machinery. 



02 



NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION 



might be taught in this connection. The main factors in marketing will probably be best 
considered in connection with the disposal of particular products as indicated above under 
plant production, animal production, and dairying. The following topics are appropriate 
for this course: 



i. Marketing.. 



2. Farm Accounts. 



Preparation for market 
Choice of market 
Transportation 
Method and cost of sale 

Feed and milk records 1 r^,- . , ■ , , , '- 

p , This is to include only the most gen- 

t, ",. , eral suggestions and a discussion 

Breeding records > f ., -° , e , . r „ 

T . • of the importance ot keeping full 

Inventories , *\ A r b 

-nil ■ and accurate records 
Bookkeeping 

A. C. True, 

H. H. Wing, 

T. F. Hunt, 

H. T. French, 

J. F. Duggar, 

Committee of the Association of American Agricultural Colleges 

and Experiment Stations. 



DISCUSSION 

Lorenzo D. Harvey, superintendent of schools, Menomonie, Wis., chairman. — It 
was not the thought of the committee, and it will not so appear in the report, that all 
classes of children should take this distinctively agricultural work in rural schools. Cor- 
respondence was carried on with the state department of education of every state in the 
Union, with agricultural colleges, and with leading teachers and others interested in this 
work; and we thus secured information as to the existing sentiment thruout the country. 
We found a large amount of interest in the southern states, the north central states, some 
of the western states, and some interest in the eastern and the remote western states. 
We found that but little had yet been done, and that there was a lack or preparation on 
the part of the teaching force, and a lack of organized material available as subject-matter 
for instruction. A large mass of material still unorganized, but in process of organization, 
thru individual effort, will rapidly become available. With this information, the com- 
mittee undertook to formulate a report which should present an argument for industrial 
education in rural schools. 

The committee expects that there will be some disappointment that more industrial 
work is not recommended for the distinctively rural schools. The committee investigated 
that matter very thoroly, in countries where this work has been undertaken, and reached 
the conclusion that only a limited amount can be done in one-room rural schools. There 
is no case where the experiment has been successful over any large area. It has been 
tried in France and in other countries of Europe; it was tried in Canada formerly, and 
it has been tried there again under conditions more favorable than anywhere in the United 
States. We do not want to lead people to believe that the proposed work can be done 
successfully in elementary schools where teachers are not prepared and are changed every 
two or three years. In large numbers of these schools we do not find pupils who have 
reached a stage of maturity ready for scientific work in industrial subjects. The com- 
mittee has formulated a course for the consolidated schools, for graded schools, and for 
high schools, and the committee thinks that those who find the one-room schools ready 
for this work can take suggestions from this report concerning these other three classes 
of schools. 



INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION IN RURAL SCHOOLS 93 

The possibilities of this work in secondary schools were discussed by the committee 
more than any other one phase of the subject, and the committee agrees that there should 
be a new type of secondary schools for industrial training in rural communities. We believe 
that this can be given without leaving out any of the work now being done in these schools. 
We find that there is a lack of text-books in agriculture, and that of those now in use, and 
of those being prepared, some are good and some are poor. 

Charles D. McIver, president of State Normal and Industrial College, Greensboro, 
N. C. — I was struck with the frankness of Chairman Harvey in saying that this work 
cannot be put into full operation at once. I would not discourage an optimist. An 
optimist is useful; but we must not in matters like this be too optimistic. 

I do not agree fully with the report that this teaching is desirable for rural schools 
chiefly. Why not teach agriculture in urban schools ? This subject is large enough 
to teach in every school from the kindergarten to the university, including theological 
seminaries. I would rather a child should get the method by which a plant drinks water 
than that he should learn what states touch the ocean. Do not imagine that any lessons 
in books will teach people to love the drudgery of the farm. If a man can see something 
in the future that is worth obtaining, he will work with good cheer. It takes more capital 
than anybody supposes to manage a farm on scientific principles. It is not necessary 
to teach actual agriculture in the schools. We can make the subject interesting as a 
theoretical study; I would rather study the theory of farming than the theory of cube 
root. We must learn how to teach. We must not try to teach too many things. It is 
the time for us who are leaders of our profession to temper the judgment of the world, to 
guide it and keep it from being foolish. I have thought of many things that might be 
done in a rural school. A great deal of good might be done by a cultured woman, who 
could get someone to buy the utensils of domestic service, which many of the children 
have never seen. An exhibit of the labor-saving devices for the dining-room and the 
kitchen might do more good than teaching books. There are many people who have 
never seen even one well-served, neat meal; nor have they seen how a meal should be 
eaten. As eating is to go on for a long time yet, people should learn how to eat. Serving 
a meal once a month for instruction, or even once a year, would help pupils to learn how 
to eat. It would make a teacher ridiculous to try to teach agriculture to children whose 
parents know more about the subject than the teacher will ever know. 

I have no fear as to the danger that one subject may crowd out another. I have no 
fear about agriculture crowding something out. The interest of the people in this subject 
is so great that it is entitled to crowd some things out of the schools. Only the subjects 
that the people love will crowd other subjects out. 

A. C. True, director of the Agricultural Department, Washington. — It seems to me 
that the committee has taken a very safe and sane view. If their recommendations are 
carefully studied by the great body of people, they will commend themselves fully, and 
if they are put into operation, great good will come to the people of this country. We are 
just entering on a period when the agricultural people are becoming acquainted with the 
advantages that will come from the application of science to their work, and they are 
ready to demand that something shall be done which will give their children the benefit 
of the work being done by the Department of Agriculture and by the experiment stations. 
It is, therefore, with great pleasure and satisfaction that the friends of agriculture have 
seen the rapid growth of interest in this subject in all educational associations, and above 
all in this greatest of educational bodies, the National Educational Association. It is abso- 
lutely essential that the subject of agriculture shall in one form or another be taught in 
the public schools. It is well that educators should recognize that fact, and deal with 
the problem in such a way as to reach the right solution of it. This involves a general 
improvement of the public schools. 

The government is spending every year on agricultural colleges and experiment 



94 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION 

stations two million dollars, and on other work of the department at Washington more 
than six million dollars. Much of this expenditure must go to waste, unless the results 
of this work can be disseminated among the people. A million people attend the farmers' 
institutes every year. The printed matter from the department and from the experiment 
stations is widely disseminated; the correspondence with intelligent farmers is extensive; 
but the great mass of the farmers are not being reached. We must open the eyes of the 
boys and the girls of the farm, so they may see what can be done when they come to matu- 
rity. Teachers should know that the schools are to be a large factor in opening the eyes 
of the children to the work that the general government and the states are trying to do 
for the people. The children of the rural schools should have work that will help them 
in their spheres, just as nature study will help the children of the city schools. The 
country children, as a rule, are familiar with the operations of the farm, and with the 
ordinary processes of agriculture and it is not so necessary to teach them how to do these 
things as to teach them why these things are so done. 

G. Stanley Hall, president of Clark University, Worcester, Mass. — The first 
thirteen years of my life were spent on the farm, and I learned so much that I became 
conceited. Later in life I took lessons in certain industries in Germany. My pride took 
a great tumble when I went to Tuskegee and learned that the colored people there could 
do more than I could do. 

To my mind, the movement in Canada solves the question. It is not the high schools, 
but the normal schools where this work is introduced in Canada. If you train teachers, 
this work can be done in the schools. Possibilities are practically unlimited. In the 
south of France, for instance, they have dairy schools and schools for almost every 
industry. There are, as I remember it, 62,000 school gardens in France today. 

It seems to me an anomalous thing that we have a classical man at the head of almost 
every school here, whose chief care concerning trades is to avoid conflict with trade unions. 
We are smitten with the notion that we must study and teach processes and not products. 
We should reverse this process and study what the children need. They should make 
toys in the lower grades, and then in the higher grades simple physical apparatus. We 
must not forget that there is a sentimental side to this subject which can reinforce the 
industrial side. 

W. M. Hays, assistant secretary, Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. — 
Heretofore our entire school system has looked toward city life. Not only the city graded 
schools, city high schools, and state universities, but the non-public schools, and even 
the rural schools, have given an educational trend toward the city. The teachers, the 
textbooks, the ideals, emphasize the city professions, while the important everyday affairs 
of the farm and the farm home, by sheer neglect, have been discredited even in the rural 
schools. 

Congress, in starting a system of agricultural colleges, took the lead in inaugurating 
a separate system of country life education. The fifty agricultural colleges have become 
so many infection points. As city life education has gradually become a unit by the 
articulation of city graded schools, city high schools, and state universities, so country 
life education is becoming a unit. The agricultural college is the apex of this new system ; 
the agricultural high school is growing into the central portion; the consolidated rural 
school and the one-room rural school are to be the great base of this structure. 

The system in country life education and the system in city life education are to 
have even better relationships than now. Young people can more readily go from the 
country life system to the city life, and from the city life system to the country life, pro- 
vided outside of school they will gain the necessary practical experience in actual life. 
It is not possible to prevent it being easier for country boys and girls to go into city life 
than for city boys and girls to go into country life. 

A great deal of the body of agricultural knowledge and instruction furnished by the 



INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION IN RURAL SCHOOLS 95 

agricultural colleges, the United States Department of Agriculture, and the fifty state 
experiment stations, and like agencies abroad, can be taught in the rural schools while 
the children are yet with their parents. This body of knowledge cannot well be taught 
in the city high schools. There the instruction is under city environments, and the 
equipment cannot be satisfactory. In rare cases will the point of view of the city teacher 
be right. 

If rural schools can be organized into larger units, with one teacher adapted to teach- 
ing agriculture and another to teaching home economics, the boys can learn how better 
to plant and manage farms, and the girls how better to conduct the farm home; and thru 
the children the parents can be brought into more intimate touch with the industrial 
educational work of the school, both that they may help in the pupils advancement, and 
that they may secure for home use many things such schools can bring to them. The 
proposed consolidated rural school should be truly a farm school. It should be in a 
farming community, and should have a ten-acre farm, with a cottage for the principal, 
who should be trained in agricultural teaching. With half this ten acres equipped with 
groves for shelter belt; with ornamental trees, shrubs, and flowers; with ample play- 
grounds; with small farm buildings; and with the other five acres devoted to field crop 
experiments and demonstrations, the agriculture is placed alongside the three R's for 
the boys. A woman assistant trained to teach home economics, with the small equip- 
ment necessary for teaching cooking, sewing, home decoration, etc., could in like manner 
place home economics alongside the three R's for the girls. Much practical education 
in farming and home making are best managed by the co-operation of the parents and 
the teachers. The union of home industrial work and school work in rural schools is 
the point in which the farm youth has his greatest educational advantage. 

As the city high schools, with some aid from normal schools, prepare the large number 
of teachers required by the city primary graded schools, so the one agricultural high 
school in each ten counties, with its several hundred students, supplemented by short 
courses in normal schools, will be the natural agencies to train the teachers for rural 
schools. It should be observed that the consolidated rural school taking the place of 
seven one-room district schools requires that one instead of seven teachers knows how 
to teach agriculture, and that one instead of seven knows how to teach home economics. 

The cost of a system of country life education, with the consolidated school in every 
district five miles square, with an agricultural high school in districts of ten counties each, 
and with an agricultural college in each state, will be somewhat more than the cost of the 
present system of educating those people who remain in country life. It will cost the 
state considerable to build the consolidated rural schools, and to provide well-equipped 
agricultural high schools; also to increase the equipment of the state agricultural colleges. 
It will also cost more to pay the smaller number of teachers, and to pay for the necessary 
school vans, than is now required to pay the larger number of poorly paid teachers in the 
small rural school. The annual expense of running agricultural high schools will also 
be a considerable added expenditure; and there will be need of increased expense for 
agricultural colleges. But the direct benefit from increased production, making the 
cost of producing farm products less to the farmer, and giving them at cheaper prices to 
the cities, will more than justify the expense all along the line. The increased civilization 
in country communities, the better preparation for city life for those who are to leave the 
farm for the city, and the more wholesome and more delightful relations between city 
and country will be priceless additional advantages. 

During the last few decades our country has been placing on its feet a splendid system 
of higher education for city life, developed in sectarian colleges — great universities not 
belonging to the state — and in great state universities. City high schools in many cities 
have gained a permanent place, joining the well-nigh universal primary and deservedly 
most popular graded school with the university, making a well-articulated system of 
education for city life. 



96 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION 

The agricultural college, representing higher education in agriculture, has gained 
a permanent place. Agricultural high schools have successfully entered a place between 
the rural schools and the agricultural colleges. The consolidated rural school, with 
agriculture and home economics made permanent, is rising above the horizon for all sec- 
tions where a rich soil provides an income with which to support a strong system of county 
schools. The one-room district school in sections where consolidated rural schools 
cannot be afforded is beginning to be improved, and made more nearly to meet the needs 
of boys and girls who are to manage farms and farm homes. These schools will gain 
methods and informaton from the superior work being organized in the consolidated 
rural school, both in general subjects and industrial education relating to the farm and 
farm home. They can do only a part of the work of the highly organized farm school, 
and can do it only partly as well. 

The elements of country life education are being wrought out. Nearly all states 
are succeeding with agricultural college education, agricultural high-school education is 
flourishing grandly in certain localities, and primary agricultural education is being worked 
out item by item. Some states are succeeding with consolidated rural schools; others 
have succeeded in placing agriculture in their district schools; some are making some suc- 
cess at training teachers for these two classes of rural schools. In not a few states literature 
is being written for the teacher of agriculture and home economics in the rural school. 
Organizing all these forces into a system of country life education, with the consolidated 
rural school at the base, the agricultural high school in the middle, and the agricultural 
college at the apex, all financed as splendidly as we have financed the primary graded 
school of the city, the city high school, and the city-life part of our colleges and univer- 
sities, is the main thing now to be done. Teachers, legislators, farmers, and all other 
citizens should consider this matter more seriously. 

The sources of funds from which to draw money with which to inaugurate and carry 
forward this education should be most carefully investigated. The best plans to use 
in erecting buildings and equipping them under each local condition should be carefully 
and comprehensively wrought out. Provision should be made for greatly enlarging the 
agricultural classes in our state colleges of agriculture, that more teachers and investigators 
may be prepared. Agricultural high-school provisions of very large capacity are needed, 
not only to furnish technical high-school instruction to boys and girls who are to farm 
and be farmers' helpmeets, but to provide the armies of teachers needed in an adequate 
system of reorganized rural schools. 

Never before was there being accumulated such vast masses of wealth in real and 
personal property. Never before was America's average acre of land so valuable to sell 
nor to rent or work. The annual production per capita, both in the agricultural industries 
and in the non-agricultural industries, is larger now than ever in our history. Our annual 
expenditures, our annual increment of wealth, and our total wealth having increased 
to such immense proportions makes possible many things not heretofore within reach. 
What can better serve the interests of the rural population, and of the city population, 
than for the nation and the states to inaugurate plans for co-operating with county com- 
munities in placing technical instruction in agriculture in the rural schools on a parity 
with each of the three R's and other general subjects, in placing education in city industries 
on a basis equal to education in academic subjects in city life schools, and in placing 
home economics in its deserved place of practical efficiency alike in schools devoted to 
city life and in schools devoted to country life ? 

Lewis H. Jones, of Ypsilanti, Mich. — The suggestion that this work must begin 
with the consolidation of rural schools is a matter of greatest importance. Now, if we 
are going to extend this work, we must show somewhere one rural school actually doing 
this work. 

Oscar J. Craig, of Montana. — The subject of agriculture is in the required public- 
school course of Montana. 



INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION IN RURAL SCHOOLS 97 

John W. Cook, of Illinois. — The demand is so great for normal-school teachers in 
the village and city schools that the country schools cannot compete in securing trained 
teachers. I am contemplating the organisation of a modern rural school, but it would 
need to be within a mile or so of the normal-school plant. How can I get the pupils for 
it, when all the children within that distance come to the city schools ? 

James M. Green, of New Jersey. — The agricultural population of New Jersey is 
not large, and those who are engaged in agriculture now are seeking to prepare for the 
occupations of the city. When we try to start an agricultural school, there are no com- 
munities that have pupils for such a school. In no agricultural neighborhood in New 
Jersey can there be found ten pupils expecting to follow agriculutre. In such accepted 
studies as botany, zoology, chemistry, and physics we can lay stress on agricultural topics, 
but when we come to present the agricultural phase of these subjects as the chief work, 
the pupils do not take them. 

Augustus S. Downing, of New York. — This is a burning question with us in the 
state of New York. The state has made an appropriation for an agricultural college at 
Cornell. The people of our state are demanding of the educational department that it 
shall put into primary and secondary schools, as well as the rural schools, a course in 
agriculture. We want to put into the schools something that will keep the boys and the 
girls from leaving the farm and going to town. You cannot stop this exodus from the 
farm until economic conditions are so adjusted that the scale tips even. The teacher 
trained in the normal school gets more money in the town than in the country, and goes 
to the town, as you and I would. Our state is giving training to rural-school teachers 
in training schools with the hope that the rural schools may get well-trained teachers. 

The gentlemen urging industrial training differ as to whether the processes or the 
product shall be taught. I urge that the process is the important thing. 

In order to teach the boy on the farm, you must show him that if he learns his business 
he can have the product of his labor. When he works on the farm for his father, he gets 
nothing for his work. He hires out to clerk in the store and gets his wages, and spends 
these wages as he pleases. 

Lorenzo D. Harvey, chairman of the committee, being called upon to close the 
discussion, said: At the last meeting of the committee it was decided to present to the 
Council the question whether there should be a committee to continue investigations on 
this subject. This committee believes, as the result of its investigation, that the investi- 
gation should be continued. 

I want to add in response to the suggestion of Dr. Hall, that the committee does not 
think there is anything to learn from Canada. The experiment there shows that success 
is impossible when the teachers are not prepared. Again, the Canadian example does 
not meet our case, because all the support given there is given by Sir William MacDonald, 
who has sent men there to superintend the work. That system cannot be incorporated 
into our schools under present conditions. 

What Dr. Hall says is true of the normal schools abroad, but the work done there 
by the secondary schools has been done in response to the demands of the public. As 
he says, we have not the large number of schools here in proportion to our large population. 

As the suggestion concerning the man living on the grounds and cultivating the 
garden, we have little prospect of establishing work in that line. Our school gardens 
fail because during the long vacations in this country, their care is impossible. 



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